Owen Farrell has been omitted from Steve Borthwick’s England squad for the team’s first camp ahead of the autumn series despite the the 33-year-old’s late call-up to the British and Irish Lions’ summer tour of Australia.
Farrell’s return to Saracens for the upcoming season had made him eligible for selection.
The other eye-catching omission from the 36-man squad was captain Maro Itoje who is managing the concussion sustained in the Lions’ final Test.
Itoje will be present for the three-day camp in Surrey that runs until Tuesday but will not spend any time on the field.
The 30-year-old Lions skipper failed an HIA after 27 minutes of the third Test against the Wallabies in Sydney on August 2 and has been stood down from training as Borthwick begins plotting the downfall of Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina this autumn.
England’s Lions stars miss the opening two rounds of the Gallagher Premier as part of the post-tour mandatory rest period and Saracens have given Itoje an additional week off before reporting for preseason.
While there is currently no concern over Itoje’s availability for the autumn, Farrell’s prospects of being involved have receded with his absence from the camp.
He was last month overlooked for one of England’s 25 elite player squad contracts despite swapping Racing 92 for Saracens and proving his fitness as a late call-up to the Lions tour.
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Now Borthwick has given a stronger indication of his thinking for November by picking George Ford, Fin Smith and Marcus Smith as his fly-halves and looking to Ollie Lawrence, Seb Atkinson and Fraser Dingwall as his inside centre options.
Tom Curry, Elliot Daly, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Will Stuart join Itoje in being given the camp to rehab injuries alongside England’s medical team.
England’s 36-man squad
Forwards: Fin Baxter (Harlequins) Jamie Blamire (Leicester Tigers) Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers) Alex Coles (Northampton Saints) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks) Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins) Ben Curry (Sale Sharks) Ben Earl (Saracens) Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears) Jamie George (Saracens) Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers) Ted Hill (Bath Rugby) Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks) Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby) Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints) Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks) Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby) Tom Willis (Saracens)
Backs: Seb Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby) Oscar Beard (Harlequins) Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints) George Ford (Sale Sharks) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints) George Furbank (Northampton Saints) Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints) Will Muir (Bath Rugby) Cadan Murley (Harlequins) Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints) Marcus Smith (Harlequins) Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby) Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers) Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers)
Information from PA contributed to this report.
