England suffered a double blow Tuesday with news that prop Alex Corbisiero and lock Geoff Parling will miss the November Tests.
Corbisiero, 26, will be out of action until early 2015 due to a torn shoulder ligament sustained in the second half of his club Northampton's Premiership victory over Bath on Saturday.
Leicester second-row forward Parling is likely to be out until December as he recovers from concussion.
The 30-year-old Parling saw a specialist this week after being concussed for the second time in three games in the 45-0 Premiership defeat at Bath 10 days ago.
"Geoff will probably be another couple of months out. You'd like to think that by December he'll be playing again," Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said.
Parling has been concussed on several occasions and the head trauma sustained at the Recreation Ground occurred just weeks after he was struck by a similar injury in a pre-season match against Edinburgh.
"It's more that he's had successive concussions in a short period of time. You have to take that very seriously, as we do," Cockerill said.
Northampton said the specialist's advice on Corbisiero was that the "tear needed surgical repair so that he can play to an optimum level in the future".
"The Saints and England medical teams are liaising on Corbisiero's treatment and recovery," the club added of the prop who has had a recent history of serious knee trouble.
Corbisiero and Parling will miss all of England's November internationals, against New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Samoa, a major blow for England head coach Stuart Lancaster.
Lancaster is due to announce his latest elite player squad in three weeks' time, and both Corbisiero and Parling, capped 21 times and a three-cap British and Irish Lion, would undoubtedly have been a major part of selection plans the following month.
Corbisiero's absence in particular deepens Lancaster's headache in terms of front-row options as Saracens loosehead Mako Vunipola (knee) and Leicester tighthead Dan Cole (neck) are not expected to be fit for the autumn campaign.
Corbisiero has won 19 caps and starred for the 2013 British and Irish Lions after being summoned as an injury replacement from England's Argentina tour, scoring a try during the series-clinching third Test win against Australia in Sydney.
He is regarded as one of the finest all-round props in northern hemisphere rugby and his latest injury also means he will miss a number of games for Northampton, including at least four of their European Champions Cup fixtures, such as tough pool matches against Racing Metro and the Ospreys.
Source: AFP
