{"id":410532,"date":"2026-02-06T04:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410532\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T04:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:31:09","slug":"feyi-waboso-hands-england-six-nations-injury-scare-48-hours-before-wales-opener-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410532\/","title":{"rendered":"Feyi-Waboso hands England Six Nations injury scare 48 hours before Wales opener | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has given England a late injury scare before they start their Six Nations<\/a> campaign against Wales on Saturday after pulling up in training.<\/p>\n

The Exeter wing was unable to complete England\u2019s session at Pennyhill Park due to a leg injury with Steve Borthwick\u2019s medical staff investigating its extent on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

If Feyi-Waboso is ruled out, Elliot Daly would appear the most likely candidate to play on the wing against Wales while Borthwick could also move Tommy Freeman from midfield and introduce Henry Slade or Max Ojomoh at centre. A more radical option would be to move Freddie Steward to the wing and select Marcus Smith, who has been named on the bench, at full-back. Cadan Murley of Harlequins was also named in the squad, but is due to appear for England A against Ireland on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Losing Feyi-Waboso would be a blow given his form for England and Exeter this season. He started all four of England\u2019s autumn internationals, scoring two tries, and was a constant threat on the wing, reintroducing himself to the international stage after missing last year\u2019s Six Nations with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

For Feyi-Waboso it would be a desperate shame given he is yet to appear for England against Wales, having had the opportunity to choose which of the two nations he would represent. \u201cHe\u2019s really keen to be as good as he can be,\u201d said the defence coach Richard Wigglesworth, who confirmed the 23-year-old is a fitness concern. \u201cHe\u2019s really coachable, takes feedback really well, wants to learn and he\u2019s got incredible physical commitment as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie George, meanwhile, has said that he did not expect to captain England again after he was restored to the role for Saturday\u2019s match with Maro Itoje named on the bench. Itoje missed the start of England\u2019s training camp<\/a> in Girona after travelling to Nigeria to attend his mother\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

As a result Borthwick will start Itoje on the bench, with George leading the side on his own for the first time since his Saracens clubmate was appointed captain last January, before the 2025 championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege, I love this job, it\u2019s the best thing in the world, being able to do this,\u201d said George, who co-captained the side with George Ford on last summer\u2019s tour of the Americas. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible opportunity to be doing it again. It\u2019s probably for one week and one week only, so I\u2019m making the most of it. Not a huge amount has changed, the leadership meetings that we have \u2013 myself, George, Ellis, Maro \u2013 we\u2019re having conversations, I\u2019m speaking to Maro constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

England, after 11 straight victories, are red-hot favourites to beat a Wales side who have not won a Six Nations match since 2023. With some bookmakers England are 66-1 on to put Wales to the sword and, while George believes that gives England\u2019s opponents a \u201cfree hit\u201d, the 35-year-old hooker has called on his side to embrace the expectation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are looking to use the momentum of the last 12 months we\u2019ve made it very clear that we need to start big and start fast and set the markers down about what this team is going to be moving forward,\u201d he added. \u201cWe haven\u2019t shied away from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a free swing [for Wales]. When you\u2019re a leader of a team you go looking for what\u2019s going to drive us and I\u2019ve no doubt they\u2019ll be using all the stuff that\u2019s going on in the background, the fact that it\u2019s England v Wales, if I was in their camp I\u2019d probably be saying the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has given England a late injury scare before they start their Six Nations campaign against Wales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-410532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}