Amid continuing doubts over David Pocock’s fitness, Australia’s preparations for Saturday’s encounter with England have been further disrupted after it emerged a sickness bug has swept through the camp.

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Israel Folau and Bernard Foley are the latest victims of the bug which initially hit the squad in Italy last week and has affected around 10 people, a mixture of players and members of staff. Both players took part in Tuesday’s training session but it is hardly the ideal buildup as Australia look to end a run of five straight defeats to England on Saturday.

Pocock has not been affected by the bug but was largely a bystander at training after the neck injury he sustained in the 26-7 win over Italy. He missed training on Monday – as did Folau and Foley – and while he took part in the warm-up on Tuesday he stood on the sidelines during the contact part of the session.

The Wallabies also denied suggestions they are indulging in mind games over Pocock’s fitness after Eddie Jones greeted the news by saying: “When I heard it I thought: ‘Here we go again.’”

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With Australia having a scheduled day off on Wednesday and Michael Cheika set to name his team to face England on Thursday, time would appear to be running out for Pocock but the Wallabies head coach will want to give his hugely influential back-rower every chance to prove his fitness.

In August, Pocock suffered a similar neck injury against the All Blacks and while he was not able to face South Africa two weeks later it was not until the captain’s run the day before the match that the 30-year-old was ruled out, having initially been named to start.

Pocock has also been known to play though the pain barrier and it goes without saying Australia’s chances in their 13th and final Test of a trying year are significantly enhanced if he is on the field.

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Standing by if he does not make it is Pete Samu, who would make only his third start for the Wallabies. Asked about Jones’s comments, he replied: “He probably thinks it’s mind games from us, but if [David’s] not right, he’s not right. We’ll give him every opportunity to be right this week.”

If Samu does feature on Saturday, his progress will be closely followed in St Ives, the Cornwall town where the Wallaby spent a season playing for the local rugby club, aged 18.

“[In] my junior footy in Melbourne, my coach was from England and he hooked me up with a team over here,” said Samu. “There was a game we played and it started snowing and I thought it was going to get cancelled, so I didn’t get changed. And then the boys came up to me asked what I was doing. So I said ‘oh, it’s snowing’. And they said ‘yeah well, we’ll be out warming up in five minutes’. I was like ‘oh, fuck’, so I got changed and yeah, that was that.”

Samu even randomly bumped into a former team-mate on Tuesday morning at the Teddington hotel where Australia are staying. He added: “He had no idea I was here and I was quite shocked to see him too.

“I think I learned a lot off the field. They don’t mind a few beers after the game. A few Snakebites! Our coach, he was quite a hard-headed guy, he was a bit old-school. He had a few good stories about when he was playing for Cornwall, about all his punch-ups and off-field antics.”