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Hughes ruled out of Samoa clash as Watson, Joseph omitted
By Christopher Devine
Nathan Hughes will miss England's final November international against Samoa due to a knee injury, while Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph have also been released from Eddie Jones' squad.
Hughes, England's first choice at number eight in the continued absence of the injured Billy Vunipola, has bone bruising in his right knee joint.
As a result, he has returned to his club, Wasps, and is set to require three to four weeks of treatment.
Watson impressed at full-back in England's win over Australia last weekend, but will not feature against Samoa on Saturday with Mike Brown available again. Brown missed the Australia game after suffering a nasty blow to the head in the previous week's match against Argentina.
Head coach Jones has also released Bath centre Joseph from his squad, together with Tom Dunn, George Kruis, Zach Mercer, Marcus Smith and Denny Solomona.
Bath flanker Sam Underhill will continue to go through his return-to-play protocols in camp after he was substituted early against Australia due to a head knock.
After beating Argentina and Australia, England will be expected to record another victory in their final match of 2017.
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Latest Comments
Italians defended well. Luckily the scrums went well for the ABs.
Go to commentsYou were 'valuing' the players by you saying "they are not greats" though, I was pointing out another reason why they are greats, inside the team I mean (which is more important to selections on the pitch stuff).
Someone like TJ would be bitterly disappointed he didn't play on this end of year tour. He is still good enough to come on in that France game and ensure the team get the victory (with regards to how well Ratima had been playing). At the very least this is a 'sorry you didn't get that chance' offering, he's not here to get token farewell games, he will be playing to try and prove that he should have been on the pitch last week.
The other decision to play your best over the future is really personal though so can agree with your reasoning. Just sharing a slightly different perspective. I'll have to check the ratings and see how they went.
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