Borthwick gives Feyi-Waboso update and 'downside' to Pollock's display on wing

England head coach Steve Borthwick has downplayed the severity of England centre Seb Atkinson’s injury, but says winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s injury requires further investigation after his side’s 45-22 win over Australia at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Sunday.

The Exeter Chiefs star, 23, looked to have made the perfect start to the match, charging through a sizeable gap in the Wallabies defence in the opening two minutes to score under the posts, only for the try to be disallowed for a forward pass earlier in the passage of play. He continued to wreak havoc on the Wallabies defence, carrying in all areas of the field, beating eight tacklers and making 130 metres before half time.

However, he received treatment to his right ankle late in the first half, and despite continuing, he did not return for the second half. Les Kiss would have been delighted that the 94kg powerhouse did not return after the break as the visitors were struggling to handle him, and while Henry Pollock – featuring on the wing – scored two tries, Feyi-Waboso showed he is England’s most valuable attacking weapon.

The 17-cap cap star was seen in a boot after the match, with Borthwick leaving England fans sweating ahead of fixtures with Japan and the All Blacks.

“Manny needs a little bit more investigation,” the head coach said. “We don’t quite know.”

Atkinson, meanwhile, was replaced after an hour, having received treatment on the field for a hip injury, but Borthwick is less concerned about his centre.

“Seb looks like a hip, hopefully nothing,” he said. “We don’t think that’s anything long-term. He’s very sore, bruised, but we’re talking days to recover. Maybe he’s not available next weekend, but it’s too early for me to say that.”

Leading into the match, there had been talk about Pollock playing on the wing for England as cover, but few expected the 21-year-old to play 40 minutes there, moreover, a 40 minutes with two tries. After the match, Borthwick said: “I say this in all the right ways that we now have to bear Henry Pollock saying playing on the wing is easy. And we now have to bear Henry Pollock saying he can play anywhere on the pitch. We suggested the front-row, he said no, he didn’t want to do that.

“He was excellent and now we’ll hear a lot about it. So that’s the downside.

“I think we’ve shared many conversations about positional versatility, flexibility. Ben Earl in the centres, he’s done a number of times. When you’re making a decision about 6-2 split on the bench, or a 5-3 split on the bench, and you look at your assistant coaches and you say, could he genuinely play there? The answer is yes, and he proved that today.”