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England's Andrew Sheridan feels the force of Argentina's tacklers. He is out of the Rugby World Cup. Photograph: Paul Harding/Action Images
The England prop Andrew Sheridan is out of the World Cup, after he suffered a recurrence of the shoulder injury that has blighted his career in Saturday's bruising victory over Argentina.
Sheridan, who recently returned from shoulder reconstruction surgery, left the field after 63 minutes of England's 13-9 victory in Dunedin. Scans were sent back to the UK, so specialists could determine the extent of the injury.
The England team manager, Martin Johnson, said: "It's really sad for Sheri, he's been unlucky. We brought five props so we have options and we can decide to bring a replacement in due course."
Northampton's Paul Doran-Jones, Wasps' Tim Payne or Matt Mullan of Worcester will be front-runners to join the squad.
Johnson will also be without Courtney Lawes for the next two matches after the lock was suspended for kneeing Mario Ledesma. There is also uncertainty over the fitness of the captain, the flanker Lewis Moody, who has a long-standing knee problem.
There is also a fair chance that England will collect more bumps and bruises against Georgia on Sunday and Romania the following Saturday. For that reason Johnson will look to spread the load. "You can't say: 'This is the biggest game of your life on Saturday, how are you fixed?'" he said. "We can't have players playing in the knockout stages without having played a game earlier in the tournament."
Moody trained fully on a cold, wet afternoon, without suffering any obvious ill effects. The flanker has not played since damaging knee ligaments against Wales at Twickenham last month and is desperate to get back on the field. "Another week is always better when you've been injured for a long time but, at some point, you've got to go and we are hopeful," said Johnson.
Hope also springs eternal within England circles that Jonny Wilkinson will reboot his kicking prowess, having missed five of his eight attempts at goal against Argentina. Johnson continues to believe there may have been an issue with the balls used last Saturday, when Argentina also missed six penalty attempts. "We have some ideas on it. To me they feel slightly different when they are new compared to when [they] have been used a lot. We haven't got any hard evidence, it is maybe a gut feeling."
There is rather less concern within English ranks about the po-faced reaction in certain quarters to Johnson's decision to allow his players to go bungee jumping. "What they do when they are training is far more dangerous," retorted Johnson, taking the view a happy player is more use to him than one who is sitting bored rigid in his hotel. "On these trips you need a balance and we're in Queenstown for a reason. If any guy had an injury that would be jeopardised by doing it they wouldn't do it."
From Johnson's perspective, the bigger issue is ensuring England produce a more fluent performance this weekend – "Guys have to understand that in the heat of the moment they need to be a little more composed" – against the Georgians. But the Lawes citing and hearing was a distraction and an appeal is unlikely. Lawes will be available to face Scotland in Auckland on 1 October.
The Northampton lock, the first player to be banned at this World Cup, pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Auckland. The independent judicial officer, Terry Willis, from Australia, decided his offence was worthy of a three-week ban, reduced to two because of his "excellent disciplinary record and remorse". Whether you can plead not guilty and be remorseful is a moot point but Johnson thought his player had been unlucky.
"He has dived in to make what he thinks is a try-saving tackle," he said, "and we thought any contact with the knees was incidental. They obviously saw it a little bit differently."
England will wait until their QC, Richard Smith, has studied the written judgment before deciding whether to launch an appeal.
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