George Kruis has been ruled out of England’s opening Six Nations match against France this Saturday after an assessment on the injury he sustained in training this week revealed that he has damaged knee ligaments.

The 26-year-old Saracens lock was expected to partner Wasps captain Joe Launchbury in the second-row, with his usual partner, Maro Itoje, switching to blindside flanker to fill the berth left vacant by Chris Robshaw.

But Kruis has joined Robshaw on the sidelines for this weekend’s curtain-raiser at Twickenham, with Courtney Lawes now set to join Launchbury in the second-row and James Haskell joining Teimana Harrison on the replacements’ bench.

A statement from the RFU on Wednesday evening read: “Further medical assessment to George Kruis confirmed that the second-row has sustained a knee ligament injury.

“Kruis will see a specialist tomorrow (Thursday 2 February) to determine further management of the injury.”

Despite the latest blow coming as Kruis’s third major setback this season following ankle surgery and a fractured cheekbone, Jones was quick not to rule him out of the entire championship, having already seen Robshaw, Billy Vunipola and Manu Tuliagi sidelined for the duration, with Mako Vunipola also unlikely to feature.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the specialist’s prognosis is, but we’re not ruling him out of the RBS Six Nations at this stage,” said head coach Jones.

Jones is already trying to cope with a depleted squad, with three of the four absentees guaranteed first-team starts due to their form in 2016, while the addition of Tuilagi would have given the Australian an extra attacking option after seeing the Leicester Tigers centre miss all but one of England’s 13 matches in 2016.

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With his squad now whittled down to 24 men, and only one needed to dropout before the matchday squad is announced on Thursday morning, Jones will choose between either Wasps prop Matt Mullan or Leicester loosehead Ellis Genge to bite the bullet, unless Joe Marler fails to come through the week as he nears an early return from a broken leg.