TWICKENHAM — Your heart went out to Manny Feyi-Waboso as he waved a regretful hand towards an England medic on the touchline in front of Twickenham’s East Stand and kept glancing at the clock in the North Stand to see how long was left before half-time: Feyi-Waboso was obviously hurt.

The winger who is arguably England’s greatest attacking threat – as has been the case for the past couple of years since his exciting emergence with Exeter Chiefs – is also a student doctor, but it did not take a medical qualification to regard the lurching heft of his limp on a damaged right ankle. Diagnosis? At the very least, an early end to his afternoon as England beat Australia on Sunday, another painful blow to body and psyche.

Sure enough, Feyi-Waboso did not emerge for the second half, and while England’s head coach Steve Borthwick said there would be further examination on Monday, there will almost certainly need to be a re-think in the wing position against Japan and New Zealand.

England should beat easily Eddie Jones’s side on Saturday, but the All Blacks the following week will be an almost infinitely tougher proposition, not least in their dangerous old-new wing combination of Will Jordan and Josh Moorby.

England A reserves in line for call-up

The straightforward pick if Feyi-Waboso needs replacing from the existing England squad would be Harlequins’ Cadan Murley, with other options ranging from the A-team wings Noah Caluori and George Hendy to the versatile centre-wings Joe Marchant and Will Joseph, and then of course the effervescent back-rower Henry Pollock, who scored two tries in the second half on Sunday as the emergency choice from a six-two split of forwards and backs on the bench.

In the half-hour that good fortune afforded to Feyi-Waboso on Sunday, before he had his ankle mangled in a yellow-card tackle by Australian loosehead prop Angus Bell, he gave the latest demonstration of what not even the redoubtable Tommy Freeman – England’s first choice on the other side of the field – offers to the team.

In just the second minute, Feyi-Waboso surged over the tryline from a lovely attack orchestrated by fly-half Fin Smith, only for it to be called back for a forward pass earlier in the move.

In the 26th-minute move for England’s second try finished by Ollie Chessum, the Aussies could barely lay a hand on Feyi-Waboso – and they have not been alone in that, since he made his international breakthrough in the Six Nations of 2024.

Feyi-Waboso finds gaps by darting and swerving past soft shoulders, and if opponents do get in place as barriers, he bounces them off with his low-slung centre of gravity, and crucially keeps his feet, to keep going. 

Indeed, a valid worry surrounding him is the temptation for coaches who live or die by winning matches to use Feyi-Waboso as a battering ram, such is his ability to drive hard through and beyond contact, partly because they know he won’t say “no”.

A worrying trend

Feyi-Waboso missed this year’s Six Nations after hurting his hamstring, and when he played the Prem final in June, it was just three weeks after an injury to his jaw that needed an operation. That was still giving him gyp at meal times during the subsequent England tour, and he had already missed the second half of the 2024-25 season after a dislocated shoulder.

The cheap quip is that trainee medic Feyi-Waboso should have the inside track on all these anatomical problems, but more seriously at the age of 23 he has been through enough setbacks to last a whole career, not just the early stages of one that could put him up with the all-time greats.

When Borthwick spoke after this match, he praised England’s “speed into position”, and added “when we played straight, we looked very good”. These are high on Feyi-Waboso’s CV, even if he did also drop one ball off a maul in the opening quarter.

“There was a couple of spells where we went a little bit lateral,” said Borthwick, and that may inform who he picks to step into the breach, should the news on Feyi-Waboso be bad.

He had started four times for Exeter this season, scoring twice at Bath. On the summer tour, his three starts out of three brought tries against Fiji and Argentina, and a hope of a longer run in the national team.

Pollock on the wing would be a gamble

So we wait to see what Borthwick will do. If he wishes to pursue the Pollock contingency, it could be fine against the Japanese, with more of the pace and handling skills the 21-year-old Northampton Saint certainly possesses.

And we could be treated to a bit more of the fun we saw when England were a comfortable 38-15 ahead and Marcus Smith, on for the injured centre Seb Atkinson, kicked to Pollock on the wing. With a choice of kick, run or pass, Pollock chose a grubber through Tom Wright’s legs, and while the idea ran out of space to work, the crowd and the bleached-blond perpetrator loved it.

The defensive side of the game, and positioning in urgent situations, would be a much bigger concern against more proficient opponents. On 73 minutes, Pollock was a little wayward and the situation required Henry Slade to cover to get the Aussie wing Max Jorgensen into touch – and it led to a Wallaby try anyway as England’s line-out went wrong.

A lot went right for Borthwick and England on Sunday, but injuries and rejigging are the bane of every coach and, sadly for Feyi-Waboso, every player too.