Martin Johnson insisted today that discipline was not a problem within the England team as he expressed his dismay at Matt Stevens's positive drugs test for taking cocaine.

The England manager admitted to feeling "saddened, disappointed and let down" after hearing last Tuesday that the 26-year-old Bath prop had an addiction to the substance.

His confession was the latest in a seemingly endless list of scandals to hit English rugby during Johnson's six-month tenure.

Johnson was forced to lay down the law following last summer's New Zealand tour, which was overshadowed by unfounded allegations of sexual assault but he has since seen centre Mike Tindall found guilty of drink driving and winger Lesley Vainikolo charged with assault.

"We spoke about trust at the start of the week," Johnson said at the launch of the RBS Six Nations today.

"You can't put them all in the same category, I don't think. In terms of Matt, you don't know what is involved or how big his problem is but it is obviously a powerful thing if he can get under the influence of it.

"Responsibility is responsibility no matter how much you get paid. I think we have got good characters in our squad."

Stevens was immediately suspended by both Bath and England and is facing a possible two-year suspension under European Rugby Cup regulations.

He will find out his fate at an ERC disciplinary hearing, likely to be held within the next two weeks, and although Johnson was at pains not to pre-empt the outcome, he concedes the forward does not feature in his Six Nations plans which starts in nine days' time against Italy at Twickenham.

"My initial reaction was disappointment, surprise and a little bit of feeling let down," Johnson added.

"Taking drugs is not good for people or athletes, not good for the squad or the sport and for the reputation of the game.

"Matt won't be playing for us for a fair while and that is a sad situation.

"We all want him to get over it and get back to whatever he wants to do. If that is rugby, which presumably it is, we want that to happen.

"But that is a long process to go through. Obviously he hasn't even had his hearing yet so we will wait to see how that goes and then it's about whatever treatment he needs to have to get over his problem."

England captain Steve Borthwick left Bath at the end of last season but remains firm friends with Stevens, who he intends to help through his current crisis.

Borthwick said: "We in rugby, and certainly I, have little or no knowledge of this thing that is in society.

"I was shocked by it. Drugs have absolutely no place in sport.

"As a friend of Matt's, and he has many close friends, we would all do anything to give him support and help him recover.

"But Matt has admitted that he has a problem and no doubt he is going to pay a heavy price for that."

Julian White joined England's training squad today as Stevens's replacement after Ospreys retracted their claims that he had been guilty of eye-gouging in Saturday's fiery Heineken Cup clash.

Former England captain Martin Corry was cited on Monday night for "illegally making contact with the eye area" of an opposition player, but White and Leicester are still considering legal action for comments made by Ospreys coaches Sean Holley and Jonathan Humphries after the game.

"There were a lot of accusations flying around that have removed and apologised for," Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Michael Lipman is expected to have recovered from the concussion he suffered playing for Bath against Toulouse on Sunday to feature against the Italians.