Billy Vunipola to miss start of the Premiership season

Mark McCall has confirmed that Billy Vunipola will miss the start of the Premiership season having yet to recover from the broken arm sustained against the Springboks in June.

The 25-year-old fractured the same arm he broke in April in England's 23-12 second-Test loss against the Springboks, and now faces another three weeks on the sidelines.

“It was a very straightforward break, so he could come back from that break probably game two or game three. Probably not game one, not definitely not, but probably not,” said McCall.

“But he’s running and doing everything he needs to do so he’s fine. There’s normally six to eight weeks and he’s forward a week, but we’re not going to rush him back. But it’s fine, he’s good.

“Billy’s good, he’s really really good. He obviously got to play a few games in the summer which was good, he played the final. Fingers crossed that this year he’s going to be OK but that’s just a broken arm and one of those things.”