England are set to be without Jonathan Joseph for the remainder of the World Cup pool stages, with his pectoral injury likely to keep him sidelined for up to three weeks, Telegraph Sport understands.

The Bath centre, who had gone into the tournament as England’s most potent attacking player, sustained the injury during the 35-11 victory over Fiji at Twickenham last Friday.

Initial reports from the England camp suggested that the 24 year-old would be available for the crunch match against Australia on Oct 3 if he was ruled out of the game against Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.

And it is now understood that Joseph’s injury is more serious than first thought and he is now likely to be sidelined for two to three weeks.

That would rule him out of the Australia game and potentially the final pool match against Uruguay on October 10 in Manchester, leaving him in a race to confirm his fitness for the quarter-finals if England qualify as one of the top two finishers in Pool A.

With just four centres named in Stuart Lancaster’s 31-man squad, the England head coach faces the quandary of whether to stick by the Bath player, who is seen as critical to the red rose side’s of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy for the first time since 2003 or call up a midfield replacement.

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Joseph is remaining in camp today for further treatment while the remainder of the squad enjoy a day off with England’s medical team doing all that they can to ensure he recovers in time to play a meaningful role in the tournament.

The fact that Owen Farrell, who is set to start at fly-half ahead of George Ford on Saturday, can cover inside centre at least gives Lancaster an extra midfield options while Exeter wing Jack Nowell also has experience of playing at centre in the Premiership.