England prop Andrew Sheridan, who suffered a neck injury against Australia, appears to be winning his fitness battle for the clash with South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday.

Team manager Martin Johnson is considering making as many as five changes to the team when it is named at lunchtime and Sheridan, if he is fit, could have a new partner in the front row, with Northampton's Dylan Hartley in line to replace Lee Mears.

Johnson is looking to bulk up his pack for the challenge of the Springboks and Wasps pair Simon Shaw and James Haskell are almost certain to earn recalls. Bath flanker Michael Lipman and Leicester scrum-half Harry Ellis are also pushing for inclusion but lock Steve Borthwich is expected to carry on as captain.

Another who will definitely feature is fly-half Danny Cipriani, who today won praise from the man he replaced in the England team, Jonny Wilkinson.

The Newcastle player, who kicked the winning goal in the 2003 World Cup Final, will miss most of this season after knee surgery. Wilkinson said: "Danny is showing the kind of authority it took me a long, long time to gain.

"When I was first in the England camp with him, before the World Cup last year, and then again during the Six Nations this year, he displayed a very strong understanding of how he sees the game and what he wanted to do. He was very self-assured.

"I know that there is a perception that Danny might not have had the greatest of games at Twickenham [against Australia], but I had immediate empathy with pretty much every decision he made. The fact that some of them didn't come off is not important, they were still the right decisions.

"Likewise, I don't think it matters that a couple of kicks didn't go over because I know the next day they will go straight through the middle."