Easter, 29, was in Auckland for just four days before packing his bags for home after being ruled out of the tour with a fracture to his right hand.

It has emerged the Harlequins number eight first suffered the injury over a month ago but he played on and even captained an England XV to victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham on June 1.

It was not until he underwent a CT scan in Auckland at the weekend that it became apparent how bad the injury is. Easter is set to arrive back in London today, one week and 24,000-miles after he first departed with the squad from Heathrow.

Andrew explained: "There was some concern. We had a long discussion last Monday about whether Nick should fly out with us because we had an X-ray but we didn't have a CT scan.

"He did the original injury playing four weeks before the Barbarians game - but he played the week after doing it and he felt comfortable it was a risk worth taking. He wanted to come.

"It was only when we got here that it was clear to him it didn't feel quite the same as when he first did the injury.

"We had the CT scan on Saturday and discovered it was slightly more complicated than we had originally thought."

Easter's departure will have forced Andrew into a back-row reshuffle for the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday.

But there are no plans to call up a replacement, with James Haskell and Luke Narraway competing with Tom Croft and Joe Worsley for two back row places.

Andrew will put the finishing touches to a new-look team over the next 24 hours before announcing it after training early on of Tuesday morning, UK time.

There could be as few as three survivors from the World Cup final and only a handful of names that started England's last international, the 33-11 win over Ireland just three months ago.

Injuries have kept the likes of Easter, Phil Vickery, Danny Cipriani, Paul Sackey, Simon Shaw and Jonny Wilkinson on the sidelines.

But the selection will still highlight a significant sea-change from the last team named by Brian Ashton before his departure as head coach.

London Irish winger Topsy Ojo could win his first Test cap, while Olly Barkley, Mike Brown and Charlie Hodgson are all likely to return to the Test arena.