Steve Borthwick provides Elliot Daly injury update and hints at position swap for George Ford

Like Daly's extended absence from Sarries colours, the Leicester man has not featured for his club yet this season. Martin's extended time on the side-lines can be traced back to a shoulder injury he suffered against France back in February during 2025 Six Nations.

Borthwick recently addressed the roads to recovery for both Daly and Martin, with the England head coach hopeful to see at least the versatile utility back Daly return to his side this November.

"I was really hopeful that Elliot was going to be right for this week. You [the media] asked me that about a week ago, didn't you, ten days ago? I thought it was close. He had another specialist appointment, so just give it a little bit more time. I don't anticipate Elliot being right this coming week, but he won't be very far away after that, hopefully."

"Players are in camp, George Martin's in camp again this week, continuing his road to get back on the grass. He's going in the right direction, definitely."

Turning his attention to another George within his England squad, and there could well be a change up of position for fly half George Ford. After leading the attacking line to a solid 25-7 triumph over Australia in tough November conditions at the Allianz, Ford is leading the discussion to retain the England 10 jersey for the rest of the Autumn Series.

However, Borthwick could be set to alter the number on the Sale man's back, as the head coach looks to strengthen the versatility of the England squad across multiple positions. Having already unleashed regular wing Tommy Freeman and back row Ben Earl in the centres, and previously devised a plan to make Henry Pollock a covering option out on the wing, Borthwick revealed his latest plan for established fly half George Ford to cover England's scrum half role if called upon.

"Yes, I've considered it. When I was at Leicester, George Ford moved to nine a couple of times, and he was absolutely wonderful. That's another consideration I've had now. I don't anticipate doing that in the short-term, not in the series, but it is something I've considered.

"When you start thinking now that Ben Curry's got to come back to fitness, and George Martin come back to fitness, and start adding them into the back-five mix, I said, right, we've got a big strength of players in there. So now, it's certainly one of the considerations, but that won't be done in the short-term."

Looking ahead to the second round of the Autumn Series, England are set to host Fiji at the Allianz Stadium with a fiery clash expected against the South Pacific Islanders. Ranked at ninth in the world, Fiji are on paper the underdog nation for England's November series, when compared to Australia (7th), New Zealand (2nd) and Argentina (6th).

However, the memories of Summer 2023 are all too soon for this England side, that suffered a cataclysmic 30-22 defeat at Twickenham in the lead up to the latest Rugby World Cup. This match marked the last time England hosted Fiji at the Allianz, and the first time in which any Tier 2 rugby nation had defeated England at home. However, Borthwick's men have progressed a great deal since that defeat, with the head coach gearing up his side for another home win to bolster their Autumn campaign.

"I'll tell you about Fiji. Essentially, our focus on this is another Test match at Allianz Stadium where we want to get a win. We want to get an improved performance and an expected performance to step forward, given another amount of time in training with the squad.

"It’s seven months since we last played a Test match together with the full England squad. So I think we've got to focus this week on converting some of those chances. We were pleased with the number of line breaks we created, but disappointed we didn't convert more of them."

Borthwick highlighted how success at the ruck will be paramount against the Flying Fijians, who are expected to bring an imposing presence to the breakdown area with turnovers on the cards to halt England's attacking momentum.

"I think that we need to improve around that breakdown. I'd say Fiji have got a big jackal threat. And what's unusual about Fiji and their jackal threat is most teams jackal always from the inside. What's distinct about Fiji is they jackal from the outside as well. So, you've got this double threat and then they're very physical in the outside backs. So they do a lot of choke tackles in the outside backs and a lot of counter-rucks on the outside backs.

"So, the breakdown needs to be an area we improve on from this weekend. I'd expect this week we focus on those areas and step forward. Fiji have the ability to score tries from very little, from nowhere, where it appears there is no space and they have the ability to score with a break of a tackle and an offload. We saw that a couple of years ago here. What we need to do is make sure we deny them any of that space to do that. So, it's a big physical challenge and I think it's a big tactical challenge playing against Fiji this week."

On the defensive side of the ball, Borthwick is delighted to see such a vast improvement within his side's mettle, when compared to that of only a year before. Borthwick praised the work of defence coach Richard Wigglesworth, in how he has gotten his side primed and ready for a solid Autumn campaign.

"I thought our defence today was excellent. It's certainly a focus for us. I saw growth in it in the summer, but seeing it today, especially against a really good Australia team who can score lots of tries, I thought that was excellent.

"I think Wiggy's done a brilliant job in that. I thought he set our attack off in a really good way, with the number of tries we scored last autumn and in the Six Nations. Now switching to defence, I think he's done a terrific job in this first week."