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Nick Easter today admitted England's mounting injury worries as they prepare for November Tests against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, were the result of the "brutal" brand of rugby being played in Europe.
The relentless attritional style has left England team manager Martin Johnson with serious selection problems.
Easter, who needed nine stitches to repair a head wound in Harlequins' recent Guinness Premiership win over Bath, has already seen nearly a dozen of his fellow England senior squad members hit by injury, even though the new season is only six weeks old.
The Quins No8 said: "Rugby at the moment is a brutal game. It is taking it's toll on the players and the injuries seem to have just followed on from the problems the Lions had in South Africa in the summer.
"It comes with the territory and unless you go out there wearing American Football style protection then guys are going to continue to get hurt. But one new factor appears to be squad sizes, with clubs having to trim down the number players on the books because of the credit crunch which puts more pressure on those guys available to play."
Easter was rested for Quins' loss last week to Cardiff in the Heineken Cup under the Elite Player Squad agreement. He returned to action on Saturday alongside fellow Test stars Ugo Monye and Danny Care but could not stop the London club losing 23-19 to Toulouse.
Monye scored two tries and along with Easter and Care avoided any injury problems, but Quins' bid for European glory this season has been seriously damaged.
Will Skinner, the Harlequins captain, left the ground on crutches after injuring an ankle and will miss next week's Premiership match at Gloucester. It is a major blow for both the club and a player who was pressing for an England senior call up following Tom Rees's second shoulder operation.
With Sale prop Andrew Sheridan dislocating his shoulder in the win over Cardiff on Friday night, Johnson has lost his strongest loose head, while first choice hooker Lee Mears, of Bath, is also out of the November matches with a knee problem.
Due to a foot injury, Lions lock Simon Shaw is only "60-40" to play his first match of the season at Gloucester on Saturday, where the home side will still be missing full back Olly Morgan and centre Mike Tindall.
London Irish full back Delon Armitage and Brive centre Riki Flutey are undergoing rehab after shoulder operations while the Leicester trio of Harry Ellis, Dan Hipkiss and Toby Flood are in various stages of disrepair after injury problems.
Johnson is set to name an amended 32-strong Elite Player Squad for the three tests in a week's time. He is able to bring in new players to take over from those ruled out by injury, although this may still be complicated by further set backs resulting from next weekend's series of Guinness Premiership matches.
It was a bad weekend for London's teams in the Heineken Cup, with Irish also losing - going down 27-25 at home to Scarlets on Saturday.
Wasps fared better in the Challenge Cup as they ran in nine tries for a 57-0 win over Roma. The Londoners are now tied at the top of pool four with Bayonne, while Saracens are currently third in their pool behind Toulon and Castres.
