England players have suffered some bizarre injuries over the years but few can beat Danny Care’s chequered record. Five years ago he was ruled out of a home game with Italy after slipping on icy steps at the team hotel and now a freakish training ground miskick has ruled the scrum-half out of the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park.

Even Andy Farrell, England’s assistant coach, described the video footage of the incident as “hilarious” and revealed Care’s misfortune had been a source of much amusement within the squad. “It’s his own fault,” revealed Farrell. “He stubbed his foot on the floor, missed the ball completely, fell over and hurt his shoulder. I burst out laughing but then realised it wasn’t too funny.”

Care, who has been replaced in the starting XV by Ben Youngs, expects to be fit for the second Test in Dunedin next week, but it may take him rather longer to live down the incident. “He won’t be doing it again,” commented Farrell. “I’ve got it on tape and I showed it to all the lads the next day. It was hilarious but it wasn’t quite as good two days later when he wasn’t playing in the Test match.”

Curious injuries seem to follow England around. Their giant former prop Andrew Sheridan was laid low by a gnat bite during the buildup to the 2007 Rugby World Cup, while Mark Cueto once sold his low-slung Porsche in an attempt to ease a back problem.

The unluckiest international player of all time, though, was probably the French flanker, Jean-Pierre Salut, who missed out on a cap after twisting an ankle while running up the steps to the pitch to face Scotland in Paris in 1969.