England have been rocked by an injury to Tom Curry before their autumn opener against Australia on Sunday amid fears the flanker may miss the entire November campaign with twin brother Ben in the frame to start against the Wallabies.
It is understood that Tom Curry pulled up injured during England’s full bore training session on Wednesday, throwing Steve Borthwick’s back-row plans into disarray. England are already without the injured Bath flankers Guy Pepper and Sam Underhill and Tom Curry’s expected absence against Australia would be a further blow for Borthwick. The head coach will announce his finalised team later on Friday with England acknowledging Tom Curry is a major doubt to face Australia.
Fin Smith, meanwhile, has been pencilled in to start at fly-half after proving his fitness following a calf injury but Borthwick will be keeping a close eye on the Northampton playmaker during Friday’s final session before his afternoon team announcement, when the head coach will reveal the extent of Tom Curry’s injury. George Furbank is also hopeful of a first England appearance in two years at fullback.
The nature of Tom Curry’s injury has not been disclosed but his England career has previously been disrupted by a series of setbacks, most notably a serious hip problem that left him sidelined for eight months after the 2023 World Cup and raised questions over whether he would be forced into premature retirement.
He battled back, however, and played a starring role in the British & Irish Lions series win over Australia in 2025. Since then he has come to be used as an impact replacement by Borthwick but with Pepper and Underhill sidelined, he was primed to start the autumn campaign. Ben Curry is under strong consideration for the No 7 jersey, with Henry Pollock and the uncapped Greg Fisilau among the other back-row contenders.
Borthwick is understood to be desperate to win the physical battle against the Wallabies and doing so without Tom Curry would be an altogether more difficult task. At last week’s mini-camp England’s head coach is understood to have held ferocious training sessions in an effort to bring his players up to speed. Both Kepu Tuipulotu and Archie McParland sustained injuries that have ruled them out of contention this weekend.
Ben Curry has not started for England since the 2025 summer tour of Argentina and the USA and has been plagued by long-term hamstring injuries since then. He is held in high regard by Borthwick, however, and would be tasked with nullifying the breakdown threat posed by the Wallabies.
Speaking before news of Tom Curry’s injury had emerged, the England defence coach Richard Wigglesworth highlighted the importance of having multiple breakdown operators at their disposal with the Wallabies boasting players such as Fraser McReight, Tom Hooper and Carlo Tizzano.
“McReight is the guy that stands out but they have got multiple threats in terms of getting the ball back often,” Wigglesworth said. “It creates unstructured attack from them which they are very dangerous but often saves them [too]. That is their point of difference in what they want to do. We have got the Currys and Henry Pollock who would be skilled in that area but we have got a load of guys across the team. Maro [Itoje] obviously ranks really highly in terms of what that looks like.”
