Healey misses out

Austin Healey has been ruled out of England’s pre-World Cup tours to Australia and New Zealand and could miss the start of next season.

The Leicester man suffered ligament damage in a crunching tackle from Munster’s Rob Henderson in Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat.

And Leicester director of rugby Dean Richards has revealed that the 29-year-old faces a long battle to regain his fitness.

“I think it’s fair to say Austin’s priority now is to try to get himself ready for the World Cup,” Richards told BBC Radio Leicester.

“Hopefully he’ll be ready for our pre-season but that depends on what happens.

“He did have some cartilage damage which is being treated and also they found some ligament problems, but that’s not thought to be too serious at this time.”

England travel to Wellington and Melbourne in June as part of their preparations for the World Cup in October.