England hit by Ollie Lawrence injury setback

England will be without centre Ollie Lawrence for their Autumn Nations Cup clash with Wales after he was ruled out because of a hip injury.

Lawrence played 69 minutes of last weekend’s 18-7 victory over Ireland but he has since been troubled by the issue to his joint and he has been rested for the climax to Group A on Saturday.

The 21-year completed his debut in the Six Nations title-clinching win against Italy at the beginning of the autumn and has made successive starts at outside centre since.

Encouraging start

Lawrence has made an encouraging start to his international career and was given his most prominent role yet when Ireland were toppled at Twickenham.

With the injury-enforced absence of Manu Tuilagi, England have been looking to Lawrence to make hard yards in midfield but the experiment will come to a halt in Llanelli.

“Ollie has a little niggle around his abductor and hip area, nothing major but it is a niggle that is concerning him,” defence coach John Mitchell said.

“Ollie has huge potential as a centre. He is very talented in terms of running onto the ball and he has got exceptional ability to line break.”