England are going into this Fridays game against South Africa without a number of key players.

Phil Vickery has been banned for his trip on USA centre Paul Emerick (himself banned for 5 weeks for a spear tackle on Olly Barkley). It looks likely that Matt Stevens will replace Vickery in the team to face the Springboks on Friday, with Perry Freshwater joining the bench.

England are also suffering from the probably loss of Jonny Wilkinson with an ankle injury while fly-half replacement Olly Barkley is struggling with a hip injury. Just to make matters worse Mathew Tait and Dan Hipkiss have been ill and in isolation since the weekend.

So all in all England’s already impossible task has just got harder…