England left fearing the worst as injuries tarnish victory

England head coach Steve Borthwick fears centre Ollie Lawrence suffered a “severe” Achilles injury in England’s 47-24 victory over Italy in round four of the Guinness Six Nations, but hopes to be proven wrong before he undergoes scans in the coming days.

The 25-year-old was forced from the field after only eight minutes at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, after collapsing to the floor off the ball while attempting to accelerate.

Lawrence cut a devastated look as he was carted from the field, particularly as he would have been acutely aware of the British and Irish Lions tour at the end of the season, and his coach only confirmed the prevalent fears post-match by saying it appears to be a “tough injury” for the centre.

“It’s an Achilles injury that we’ll know more about in the next 48 hours when he has scans and sees a specialist,” Borthwick said. “Fingers crossed, it’s not quite as severe as we fear it might be. He’ll get the very, very best care and he’ll see the very, very best people to be looked after.

“It looks like it could be a real tough injury. I’m hesitant to say exactly without any detailed assessment of it in terms of scans and everything like that, but it looks like a tough injury for him.”

Lawrence was not the only casualty during the match, with Ben Earl and Tom Curry both hobbling off in the second-half, and Fraser Dingwall arriving in the treatment room in the closing stages. Earl did return to play, however, finishing the match with a try.

Borthwick is less concerned about the trio though, and downplayed any injury worries ahead of Super Saturday, where England – currently in second place – are in with a shout of winning the Championship.

“All fine with a couple of cuts. I think Ben Earl and Fraser were cuts, and needed to get off the pitch to get stitched up,” he added.

“Tom, he was all good. He was stretching a bit and we decided to make a change at that time.”