Nick Easter, whose New Zealand tour is over following a hand injury. Photograph: Paul Harding/Action Images

England’s options for Saturday’s first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park were complicated yet again yesterday when the Harlequins no 8 Nick Easter was ruled out of the tour with a broken bone in his right hand which will require him to fly back to London to seek further specialist advice.

Easter sustained the injury while captaining England against the Barbarians at Twickenham last weekend, after which he had an altercation with the Bath-bound Wallaby lock Justin Harrison in the tunnel. The team’s medical staff believed the injury would settle down and allowed the 29-year-old to travel to New Zealand but their optimism proved misplaced. The consequence has been a wasted round-trip of 24,000 miles and a hugely frustrated player. “I’m obviously very disappointed,” said Easter yesterday. “The chances to tour here don’t come around very often but it’s essential I get my hand sorted out.”

No replacement is being summoned as the tour manager Rob Andrew believes England already have sufficient back-row resources. Moving James Haskell from the blindside flank to no 8 is one possible option, with Gloucester’s Luke Narraway, Tom Croft and Joe Worsley effectively left to battle for two places in the 22-man squad due to be announced on Tuesday (local time). Easter’s absence, however, deprives England of one of their few constants in recent months and, with Simon Shaw already absent, further reduces their stock of powerful ball-carriers.

There are also close calls to be made in the second-row, at scrum-half and in the back three. With Easter unavailable, handing a Test debut to his Harlequins’ team-mate Danny Care at no 9 becomes slightly less straightforward and the need for bulk and experience might yet see Tom Palmer considered ahead of Ben Kay and Nick Kennedy as Steve Borthwick’s lock partner. London Irish’s Topsy Ojo and Harlequins’ David Strettle are the likely wings, with either Mike Brown or Mathew Tait at full-back. Andrew Sheridan could yet be the only England starting survivor from last October’s World Cup final to wear the same numbered jersey this weekend.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Sunday June 08 2008. It was last updated at 11:27 on June 08 2008.

guardian.co.uk