England will set off for South Africa on Wednesday evening without their South African-born prop Matt Stevens, who has been ruled out of the tour with a shoulder problem. Stevens damaged a rotator cuff during Sunday's win over the Barbarians and has been replaced by Gloucester's uncapped Rupert Harden.
Stevens' withdrawal is a setback for the England coach Stuart Lancaster, who has already been deprived of two injured elite-squad props, Sale's Henry Thomas and Bath's David Wilson.
The 26-year-old Harden has been a regular starter for Gloucester but England will be running short of proven Test options if anything happens to their first-choice tighthead, Dan Cole.
"It's really tough on Matt but he has been assessed by the medics and he wouldn't be able to train or play for some time," said Lancaster. "We wish him all the best but it's a great opportunity for Rupert."
Harden, who was born in Melbourne to an Australian father and English mother, was called into the Saxons squad for their January fixtures against the Ireland Wolfhounds and Scotland A. He will be expected to slot into an England party which also has a shortage of fit back-row forwards ahead of their looming first Test against the ever-physical Springboks in Durban on 9 June.
Tom Croft, Tom Wood, Calum Clark and Courtney Lawes are all sidelined while James Haskell, currently playing Super 15 rugby, is not due to arrive in South Africa until next week.
Phil Dowson, who is recovering from a blow to the head when playing for England at Twickenham on Sunday, and Ben Morgan both missed training in Bagshot, with the Exeter Chiefs flanker Tom Johnson inching closer to a first cap in South Africa.
Lee Mears, Manu Tuilagi and Ugo Monye are also nursing minor knocks but Toby Flood trained fully and appears to have overcome the groin problem which kept him out of Leicester's grand final defeat to Harlequins last Saturday.
Lancaster now has to decide on his best combination at half-back, with Danny Care's fine display for Quins having not gone unnoticed.
The management were also keeping its fingers crossed about Tuilagi's availability, the Leicester centre having been cited for a tip-tackle on Care in the first minute of the Twickenham final.
Either way Lancaster believes he has sufficient midfield resources to cover all eventualities, with Brad Barritt, Jordan Turner-Hall, Anthony Allen, Jonathan Joseph and George Lowe all touring alongside Flood and Owen Farrell.
The latter duo have both already featured at centre for England during the past season.
