England head coach Eddie Jones has been dealt a blow just 12 months from the start of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan with news that one of his most experienced players, Harlequins prop Joe Marler, has announced his retirement from international rugby in order to spend more time with his young family.

Marler, who feels that it would be unfair to carry on if "you can’t commit 100 per cent", has formed part of a world-class double-act on the loosehead alongside Mako Vunipola, and even if the Saracen has been the more regular starter over the last 12-18 months, there is no doubt that Marler’s absence from the bench, and as a highly-regarded stand-in were Vunipola to be injured, diminishes England’s resources, all the more so with Leicester’s Ellis Genge currently injured.

Jones stated that Marler has been "an integral part of the team", and would be "greatly missed". Marler will continue to play for Harlequins and is set to feature against Gloucester on Saturday.

Marler, 28, has won 59 caps, the last of them in the third Test against the Springboks in June, and is one of the senior figures in the side. He is valued not just for his propping ability but also for his unique perspective on life.

“Joe is a great player as well as a team member so I am disappointed and we will miss him,” said Jones, who was aware of what was bubbling when Marler pulled out on Sunday from the three-day camp that was starting in Bristol. “He has made his decision on personal grounds and we understand his reasoning. Joe is a good guy, an honest, mature person who understands the demands of the game and the demands of family life. I have got to admire his honesty and the way he has gone about this.”

That sense of perspective as well as honesty have been in play before, causing Marler to withdraw from Jones’ first tour in charge, to Australia in 2016, as he felt burdened by the scrutiny and furore created by the ‘Gypsy Boy’ episode in the Six Nations Championship a few months earlier.

The drawn-out saga, with TV picking up the slur directed at Wales prop Samson Lee, had taken its toll. Marler was initially cleared by the RFU only for World Rugby to step in and ban the prop for two matches and fine him £20,000.

Marler is not averse to finding himself in disciplinary hot water. It was only a few weeks after the Lee incident, and subsequent contentious suspension, that he picked up a two-week ban for kicking Grenoble hooker Arnaud Heguy in the head.

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This, though, is final and irrevocable, a reflection of the time needed to be in the right frame of mind to deal with the demands of international rugby. England have 13 Tests before the World Cup even starts in September 2019, with the likelihood that if they were to make it to the final that they would be away from home for two months. This is no snap decision, with Marler mulling it over even before he embarked on the tour to South Africa in June.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Marler told Harlequins TV. “I have been thinking about it for some time now. It was pre-South Africa that I’d already made my mind up. Albeit we lost the series 2-1, I had an amazing experience there with a great group of boys. I decided when I got back I’d see how it went with the club. But when I got the call-up for the next squad (last week), I thought the time was right to make the call so that I could very much concentrate on my family as well as the club moving forward.

Joe Marler commutes to work at Harlequins from his native Sussex credit: getty images

“I’m really grateful for the opportunities I have had in the England shirt under two regimes. I feel very lucky and privileged to have worn the shirt for as long as I did. But it’s the right time for me to stop now for me, for my family but also for England. You have got to give 100 per cent to something. I don’t feel I can give 100 per cent to the England shirt anymore and that is not fair on the team. It’s not fair on my family the time you have to spend away from them in order to commit to England. I can’t do it anymore. Now is the right time for me to walk away and get some new blood in there.”

Genge, a similar sort of character to Marler, would be fancied to step up but the 23 year-old is recovering from knee surgery after having to fly home from the England tour to South Africa after sustaining the injury in training. Genge’s rehabilitation is progressing well but he has little or no chance of making the November series. Exeter Chiefs prop Alec Hepburn joined up with the squad as a replacement ahead of the third Test against the Springboks.