Ed Slater’s knee injury could leave him battling for a place in England’s team at Rugby World Cup 2015. The Leicester lock is expected to miss the entire season after having knee surgery. The 26-year-old tore his anterior cruciate ligament while captaining England’s midweek side to a 38-7 victory over the Crusaders during the tour of New Zealand in June.

Slater may only regain full fitness six weeks before England launch their World Cup campaign by hosting Fiji at Twickenham on 18 September 2015.

“It’s horrific for Ed in many ways,” said Leicester’s director of rugby, Richard Cockerill. “He has been in the England squad and just taken on the captaincy here at the club. He is in good hands with our medical team, he’s started his rehab from the surgery and we look forward to his return to training and playing in due course. He will come back better and fresher than ever, whenever that may be. As ever, we will stick by him.

“It’s a critical year for us and for him with the World Cup coming up, and the likelihood is that he is not going to play a game between now and pre-season next year.

“He will probably spend the next 12 weeks off his feet and it will be a long way back. He has had his ACL reconstructed and he will be pretty much out for the season.”

Slater would have been primed to battle Joe Lanchbury, Courtney Lawes, Geoff Parling and Dave Attwood for a second-row place in Stuart Lancaster’s England side this season.

The former Nottingham second-row’s absence will be offset at Leicester by the summer signing of Brad Thorn, the World Cup-winning former All Black. The 39-year-old was brought in to help ease the loss of Steve Mafi, who has joined the Australian Super Rugby franchise Western Force.

The England prospect Anthony Watson has signed a two-year contract extension to stay with Bath until 2017. The 20-year-old wing also toured New Zealand in the summer and despite not being given a Test debut he will feature prominently in the race for World Cup selection.