Henry Slade the latest England player ruled out of summer tour

The England centre has gone under the knife this week to get a long-standing shoulder injury sorted.

DID YOU KNOW? Slade has Type 1 diabetes, and often injects insulin at half-time in a game

The England number 8 is a doubt for the rest of the season and could therefore miss the summer, with Simmonds set to meet with consultants over an issue with his hip and groin.

Exeter boss Rob Baxter was cautious in revealing that the back-rower would meet with specialists in the coming days to discuss the best course of treatment.

“We are still monitoring it,” Baxter said. "There are some treatment options, a lot more is going to be known this week. It doesn’t necessarily need to be season over for him but we just need to assess everything correctly.

“Without him getting all the consultants’ feedback, it’s at what level they think any intervention is required at this stage. So I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for England and I don’t want to say he will definitely be back for us at the end of the season because I don’t think it is as simple a prognosis as that.”

Marler has reportedly withdrawn himself from England's plans for the three-Test tour of Australia.

The decision to skip the tour looks unlikely to affect his England prospects after he missed the same tour by choice back in 2016.

It's unlikely that the scrum-half will travel to Australia due to personal reasons after he pulled out of the 2021 Lions tour. As a result, it would be great to get a better look at exciting playmaker Raffi Quirke following his impressive cameo appearances during the Autumn Nations Series.