Former Buchan pupil Bevan Rodd has been ruled out of the Six Nations after he had surgery on a toe injury that he picked up in November.

The 23 year old was part of the England squad that finished third at the autumn’s World Cup in France, but has struggled for game time since after fracturing his toe.

Director of rugby at Rodd’s club Sale Sharks, Alex Sanderson, said at the time of the initial injury that the prop could face a lengthy spell out despite the break being only pea-sized: ‘We thought it was turf-toe two weeks ago.

‘That’s the common injury, turf-toe, a hyper-extended toe as a prop. Very common in the scrum.

‘It was painful and it was bruised but wasn’t showing any of the real signs of tendinopathy in the foot and so we took him to get it scanned and he has got a really small fracture that was opening up with the amount of stress you put on it in games.

‘It was getting sorer and sorer and opening and closing during games. It’s obviously something you can play through because he did it twice, but it’s not something that we want to affect his toe by way of incurring arthritis down the line.’

England begin their Six Nations campaign on February 3 against Italy in Rome.