Cursed again - ankle injury puts Wilkinson out of England opener

Ironically for a player who had fought his way through a series of savage injuries caused in bone-crunching tackles on heavier opponents, the blow which stunned the holders happened during a non-contact session on the training pitch.

In attempting to jump out of the way of Bath second row forward Steve Borthwick, Wilkinson twisted his ankle badly enough for England to rule him out of their first match, against the U.S. in Lens on Saturday.

Their real fear lay not in having to take care of the Americans without him but whether the damage would eliminate him from the make-or-break South Africa tie in Paris next week and the rest of the four-match pool competition.

England's doctors were assessing the damage last night after sending Wilkinson to hospital for a scan.

Since dropping the winning goal in Sydney four years ago, their fly half has spent 11 periods spanning an aggregate of some 100 weeks recovering from operations on his neck, shoulder, appendix and hernia, as well as damage to his upper right arm, both knees, groin, kidney and hamstring. His ankles had never been a problem until 35 minutes into a training exercise on non-contact defence drills.

Defence coach Mike Ford said: "Two people came in simulating a ruck and as they went to ground, Jonny, as one of the defenders, jumped out of the way and twisted his ankle with nobody near him. The initial pain was very severe but within a couple of minutes it had settled down.

"It's possible he could have done enough damage to put him out for more than one game. Should Jonny not be available against South Africa, we've just got to get on with it. Hopefully it will be nothing serious."

Head coach Brian Ashton, picking his strongest team for the first time since England began their build-up to the tournament in late June, announced the line-up to the players at 9.45 yesterday morning.

Training at the local rugby club close to England's palatial headquarters began at 10.30am. Shortly after 11am, Wilkinson was out and Olly Barkley in — one left-footed goalkicker for another.

Barkley, promoted from the reserve bench, said: "It was quite clear when it happened that Jonny was not going to be able to continue training. I looked round and saw him on the floor in a fair bit of pain."

Ashton added: "It was just one of those unfortunate things that happen every so often but I spoke to him very briefly and he was as philosophical as ever."

With cruel timing it brought an end to Wilkinson's sequence of five consecutive Test appearances, his longest unbroken run since the last World Cup.

That it should happen on the eve of the new one will have left him wondering whether there is no end to the price he continues to pay for winning the 2003 competition.