A slippery step at the England team hotel may have ruled in-form scrum-half Danny Care out of Saturday's Six Nations clash with Italy at Twickenham.

Care hurt his ankle returning from a short forwards session undertaken on an area cleared of snow at the rugby pitch in the grounds of the team's hotel in Bagshot. Although an official statement said Care had rolled his ankle in training, Standard Sport understands the Harlequins No9 was hurt on the way back to the main hotel buildings.

As a precaution, England have put Leicester's Harry Ellis on standby to play and he will train with the team for the rest of the week, removing him from the Saxons side due to take on Ireland A in Dublin on Friday.

The loss of Care would be a serious blow to England as the No9 has been outstanding for Quins, helping them charge into the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup this season.

England fans were given evidence of Care's potential during the otherwise disappointing November Tests but now his fitness is in serious question. He will be assessed over the next two days. England trained indoors at the "Dome" at the Madejski Stadium yesterday minus Care and are determined to identify a pitch that will allow them to practise outdoors over the next three days before taking on the Italians.

England will be anxious to avoid a repeat of their disastrous opening to their Six Nations campaign 12 months ago when they were beaten by Wales.

Mike Tindall, who is back in the side, suffered a horrendous injury in that match which left him in intensive care.The centre broke a rib and punctured one of his lungs after a freak accident which saw him fall on a loose ball and connect with an opponent's foot.

Having been carried from the pitch, he was rushed to hospital 45 minutes later where further examinations revealed a two-inch tear in his liver.

Tindall also suffered internal bleeding but has tried to play down the incident when talking about it now.

He said: "It didn't hurt that much even though I knew I had probably broken a rib. I actually felt sorry for the other people in the intensive care unit who really were in trouble."

But Tindall must be wary of returning to Twickenham as his international experience after that was England's two-Test summer disaster in New Zealand. He was deemed surplus to requirements during the November Tests which saw England beaten by Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Now, Tindall is back in the team and finds himself charged with exactly the same responsibilities that made the 30-year-old a key member of the 2003 World Cup-winning side in Sydney.

Why has team manager Martin Johnson gone back to one of the men he captained to glory six years ago in Australia? In truth, it is an indictment on the quality of outside-centres available to him that he needs to put Tindall through the pain of Test rugby again, but is also a tribute to the Gloucester man's continuing love of the game despite his numerous injury setbacks.

For Tindall, it's a case of putting his body on the line yet again and he never backs down from the challenge.

He added: "I was disappointed not to be involved in the autumn internationals and I just went back to Gloucester and worked hard and being selected is only half the job - now I have to go out and help win some games."