England’s plans for Saturday have been thrown into chaos by an injury crisis which has cost Johnson a third of his senior elite squad, including seven guaranteed starters.

Johnson had to make 11 changes to his squad last week and then allowed seven players to return to their clubs for Guinness Premiership duty.

As a result, Johnson and the England management team are yet to finalise their team - and have pushed their announcement back by 24 hours.

Johnson explained: “Due to a number of players joining and leaving the squad over the last few days, we have not reached a final decision on our 22 for Saturday’s Investec Challenge match against Australia.

“Therefore we have decided to delay naming the Test side until Wednesday.”