George Kruis will not play any part in the remainder of the Six Nations after England confirmed he has been ruled out for three months, with the knee injury he picked up in training this week requiring surgery that will leave him fighting to prove his fitness for the British and Irish Lions tour.

Kruis suffered a knee ligament injury last Tuesday during a training session with the England squad, and while he was ruled out of the weekend’s Six Nations opener, head coach Eddie Jones would not rule him out of playing some part in the remainder of the tournament.

Those hopes have been dashed though after England named a 32-man squad that will train from Monday in preparation for next Saturday’s trip to Wales, with news of Kruis’ planned knee surgery confirmed.

“George Kruis will undergo surgery on Tuesday 7 February for a knee ligament injury sustained in training earlier in the week,” read the squad update. “It is expected that the second row will require a 10-12 week rehabilitation period.”

The injury puts Kruis’s chances of securing a place in Warren Gatland’s Lions squad to tour New Zealand in serious doubt as he will not complete his rehabilitation until around 16 April at the earliest, with Gatland due to name his Lions squad three days later.

If Kruis misses the full 12 weeks, he will return after Gatland’s squad announcement and would need the New Zealander to take a risk on his selection in the hope that he proves his fitness, with Saracens’ final Premiership match and any post-season matches the only chance to get some game time under his belt.

Should Saracens repeat their double-feat of last season and reach both the Premiership and European Champions Cup finals, Kruis would likely have three matches to prove he is up to speed ahead of the 10-match tour.

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With the 26-year-old out for the rest of the tournament, Jones will have to persist with the combination of Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes, who started the 19-16 victory over France on Saturday. Jones also has the option of moving Kruis’ Saracens teammatae, Maro Itoje, back to the second-row after deploying him at blindside flanker against Les Bleus, although keeping Itoje in the back-row looks to be Jones’s preferred plan.

There was also good news on the injury front for England and Saracens though as the camp confirmed that Mako Vunipola will step up his recovery from a knee ligament injury by joining the 32-man squad this week.

Six Nations team of the weekend - week one Show all 15 1 /15 Six Nations team of the weekend - week one Six Nations team of the weekend - week one stuart-hogg.jpg The player of the 2016 Six Nation picked up in 2017 where he left off. Two tries against Ireland, the second a sublime dummy and turn of speed, left the Irish scratching their heads, and he has the X-factor that means Scotland can legitimately challenge for the championship. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one virimi-vakatawa.jpg Looked dangerous when given space and turned on the afterburners when he looked up to see a tiring Joe Marler and Dylan Hartley in front of him. Kept the English defence on its toes and linked up well with full-back Scott Spedding. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one garry-ringrose.jpg Ireland may have lost out but in Ringrose they have somebody who can control the game from out in the 13 channel. Looked every bit the defensive leader in the Irish back line, and didn’t let a man get by him all afternoon. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one scott-williams.jpg Williams proved pivotal in setting up tries for Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams Six Nations team of the weekend - week one elliot-daly.jpg The versatile back is yet to look out of place in Eddie Jones’s set-up and another astute performance showed why he got the nod over Jack Nowell this week. Moved to centre for the closing stages to see out the game, and was unlucky not to score as only strong defensive work from Noa Nakaitaci prevented him from going in at the corner. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one owen-farrell.jpg Started at inside centre but finished the match at fly-half and looked very much the general that England lack when George Ford is at 10. Bossed the forwards with authority and sucked the French defence into committing early that allowed Ben Te’o to steam through and score the decisive try. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one greig-laidlaw4.jpg Held his nerve to kick two late penalties that secured a rare opening-weekend victory for Scotland, and his 100 per cent record from the tee kept essentially won the game for the Scots. Very quick to the breakdown to ensure Scotland were able to attack with quick ball that caught the Irish defence napping. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one jack-mcgrath.jpg Benefitted from a superior Irish front-row that won three penalties from the first three scrums of the match. Could be playing his way into the Lions loosehead shirt if he keeps up his form. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one rory-best.jpg 12 out of 14 successful lineout throws is nothing to be ashamed about for the Irish captain and he was a key part in the Irish dominance in the scrum. He also contributed immensely in defence with 17 tackles which helped drag Ireland back into the match. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one tadhg-furlong.jpg The third cog in an all-Irish front-row that posed Scotland all sorts of issues in their Murrayfield encounter. Carried well and frequently, giving forward momentum that allowed the Irish to attack from in the second half. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one richie-gray.jpg Alongside his brother, Jonny, Richie was formidable in defence and even managed to disrupt what was a well-functioning Irish lineout on one occasion. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one jonny-gray.jpg Simply brilliant in defence as he made a weekend-record of 27 tackles. Putting himself into Lions first XV contention with his run of form, and carried 14 times to show his teammates the way forward. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one maro-itoje.jpg Eddie Jones asked him to step up as lineout leader for England and he delivered, taking the burden on himself to take 14 catches at the set-piece. Strong work in defence and even better at the breakdown where he secured two turnovers, and tried to impose himself on the French whenever tempers flared. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one hamish-watson.jpg Standout forward with the ball in hand for Scotland as his carrying was on full display. A livewire off the scrum and didn’t miss a tackle for the duration. Six Nations team of the weekend - week one louis-picamoles.jpg Player of the round? That may be the case, as even though France failed to win on Saturday, Picamoles was on another level to the other 29 starters at Twickenham. Gained the most metres of any man in the encounter, outrunning the entire English pack by nearly 30 metres. Getty