Eddie rocked as Youngs is ruled out for season

BeN YOUNGS’ season appears to be over after the RFU confirmed last night that england’s leading scrum-half has ruptured the medial cruciate ligament in his left knee. The 28-year-old Leicester player sustained the grim injury in the ninth minute of Sunday’s NatWest 6 Nations opener against Italy at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. He was replaced on the pitch by Danny Care and last night — even prior to receiving the results of a scan — he was replaced in the training squad for the Wales game on Saturday by Saracens veteran Richard Wigglesworth. Hours later came the bulletin that Youngs (below), the Tigers and england would have been dreading — that the damage he suffered was serious. He will see a surgeon later this week but the initial prognosis is that he will be out until early May — just as the regular season is ending. If Leicester reach the Premiership play-offs, he could come into contention, if there are no setbacks along the way. In international terms, his Six Nations campaign is over almost before it had begun and Youngs will have to focus on striving to be fit in time for the summer tour of South Africa. In the meantime, Care will have a prime opportunity to enjoy the sort of long run in the starting XV which has been beyond him under eddie Jones. Care expressed sincere sympathy for Youngs, saying: ‘You never want to see a bad injury like that and I was gutted to see Ben in so much pain. He’s a good mate, as well as a competitor for the shirt. ‘He’s in pain and all our thoughts are with him. He was in the changing room after the game, still in good spirits. It would be great to get into the No 9 shirt for the Wales game having had 70 minutes under my belt. It was earlier than I expected to come on — I don’t normally play in the first half — and that was nice. Hopefully we can hit the ground running from where we left off against Italy.’ On Saturday, Care will be under-studied by Wigglesworth, who is poised to resurrect his Test career at the age of 34. A rival’s misfortune has presented him with a chance to force his way into the mix for a role at the World Cup, as a means of moving on from what happened in the last one. His last cap was for a cameo appearance off the bench against Uruguay in Manchester, in england’s final pool game at the 2015 tournament, before the host nation’s premature exit. On the back of consistently outstanding form for Saracens since then, he was summoned by Jones last summer, to play against the Barbarians at Twickenham and now a Test return beckons. In an interview with Sportsmail earlier this season, he reflected on being contacted by Jones. ‘I don’t know if I had completely shut the door on it, but I wasn’t waiting for a phone call,’ he said. ‘Then I got a call and eddie’s only words to me were, “You’ve got a chance”. ‘He was happy with how I was physically and wasn’t bothered about my age. I now know I just have to be good enough, so the World Cup is definitely not something I’m ruling out.’ england were due to train at their Bagshot base yesterday afternoon and Jones insisted he was unconcerned by the fact Wales have an extra day of preparation this week. Asked about his side’s sixday turnaround, he said: ‘We’ll adapt to it and by Saturday we’ll be flying.’