Moody ruled out of England’s opening encounter and targets Georgia return

Moody was yesterday ruled out of England’s opening match with Argentina after failing to recover from a knee ligament strain in time.

The Bath flanker had been due to make a full return to training for the first time since suffering the injury in England’s victory over Wales on August 6.

But the England medics declared Moody, who has been running and doing some training, was not right for a full contact session and Johnson decided not to risk him so early in the tournament.

It was something of a gamble for Johnson to travel with an injured captain in the first place but he insisted replacing Moody in his 30-man squad was not on the cards.

Moody’s next target it to prove his fitness to face Georgia in England’s second World Cup fixture, a week on Sunday.

Mike Tindall captained England in Moody’s absence through the RBS Six Nations and in their last two warm-up games, against Wales away and Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.

James Haskell enjoyed an impressive Six Nations at openside and he is the obvious choice to start in the No 7 jersey against Argentina.

Johnson will confirm his line-up to face Argentina on Thursday and Haskell’s recent form for England clearly eased the disappointment of losing Moody.

“We are very happy with the other guys so it is a very simple decision to hold him back another week,” said Johnson.

When Moody was named in the squad, Johnson admitted that not every player would have been allowed to carry an injury into the tournament.