George Furbank will miss the remainder of England’s summer time internationals after he was withdrawn from the staff to face South Africa due to appendicitis.
The complete-back, who was set to make his first England look in shut to 2 years, was taken to hospital on Friday night and was changed within the beginning XV by Marcus Smith.
Following the 45-21 mauling at Ellis Park, England boss Steve Borthwick confirmed Furbank will even miss the video games in opposition to Fiji on July 11 and Argentina on July 18.
Borthwick stated: “He went into hospital on Friday evening with abdominal pain, he had surgery on Saturday morning on his appendix and he is still in hospital recovering.
“I spoke with him earlier, he’s gutted and he’ll miss the subsequent couple of weeks. He might be delayed in South Africa to fly again at a later date.”
The 29-year-old, who just lately joined Harlequins, has battled a succession of accidents, together with to his calf, arm and knee, since his final England outing in November 2024.
He earned a recall after serving to Northampton Saints to the Prem Rugby title this summer time.
Borthwick backs gamers after late yellow playing cards
In the meantime, Borthwick defended Tommy Freeman and Man Pepper, who had been each proven yellow playing cards late on in Saturday’s defeat.
Freeman was despatched to the sin bin for a harmful sort out within the 71st minute and a minute later Pepper adopted him into the stands for a late problem.
That meant the vacationers had been pressured to play the ultimate seven minutes of their Nations Championship opener with solely 13 males they usually leaked tries to Malcolm Marx and BJ Dixon within the closing minutes to finish a harrowing night in Johannesburg.
Nevertheless, Borthwick refused guilty both participant.
He stated: “If you look at the Tommy Freeman one you see a slight timing error, there wasn’t anything malicious or reckless there. He was trying to make a tackle and he was apologetic for the tackling height.
“The Man Pepper one, South Africa put gamers beneath stress as a result of that’s the means they play and they’re superb.
“We want our execution and decision making to be at a very high level and these young players will learn from this experience of playing against the best in the world.”
George: Self-discipline allow us to down
England have now been hit with 10 yellow playing cards and one pink of their six video games in 2026.
The theme of ill-discipline was raised by their post-Six Nations assessment as an space of concern and Jamie George, who’s captaining the facet instead of the rested Maro Itoje, admitted that a part of their sport must be higher.
He stated: “There are some clear things we need to make sure we get better at and as players we have to take a lot more responsibility with regards to our discipline, which let us down.
“Outdoors of that, there have been intervals the place we put the Springboks beneath loads of stress. Talking to their guys they know they’ve been in a Check match.
“We are going to be a significantly better team off the back of this experience with a young team coming here and understanding how we put them under a lot of pressure and also understanding how we let that pressure get to us a little bit.
“That is going to be a fantastic studying expertise for us, however we’re gutted as a result of we genuinely believed we might come right here and win.
“We are going to rally round, stay tight and we are all looking forward to getting to Liverpool and putting in a great performance against Fiji.”
England will now look to bounce again in opposition to Fiji at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium subsequent Saturday (kick-off 2.10pm).