England coach Eddie Jones names his squad for the autumn internationals this morning - and he has some big decisions to make...
England are unbeaten under Jones having won nine from nine, including the 3-0 series whitewash of Australia, and will face South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia at Twickenham in November.
However, England's injury count continues to rise and Maro Itoje is the latest star to join the likes of George Kruis, Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell and James Haskell on the sideline, but Will Greenwood says that this is an opportunity for England to test their squad.
"Eddie [Jones] understands that injuries are part and parcel of the game. This is a long road to Tokyo in 2019 and whilst it will be a dark cloud for the injured players right now, often these dark clouds can be silver linings for coaches," said Greenwood on SSN HQ.
"They are forced to pick players who they might not have given game time to and they come in and play out of their skin. Suddenly the problem becomes an abundance of selection and life becomes rosy very quickly."
Good news for England's backline is that Owen Farrell is back in action for Saracens and Gloucester's Jonny May is also back to his try-scoring best after his knee injury.
However it is the front five that is of concern and Greenwood believes that the losing Itoje and Kruis will be the biggest challenge for Jones.
"I think Joe Launchbury will come into the second row," added Greenwood.
"He is playing exceptionally well for Wasps and is a big lump of a second row. He was one of Stuart Lancaster's go to men until he picked up a neck injury about a year or so before the 2015 World Cup.
"Then you start to look at where he will go in terms of the rest of the back five. You know that Billy Vunipola is going to play No 8 and you know that Chris Robshaw is going to play No 6 - so with those two and Launchbury you have three out of your five.
"Probably next in the pecking order publicly is Courtney Lawes. I think if you look at his game recently, Northampton have struggled a little bit and with that Courtney has not been able to impose himself physically.
"A bit of a wild card might be Ed Slater. He was in the England camp and has had some injury problems but is back and was very, very good against Racing 92. We know that Eddie likes no-nonsense second rowers. Slater is exactly that old school shoulder to the wheel second rower."
With Haskell out injured and Sam Jones also ruled out after the Brighton training camp, many believed that Itoje would be moved to the back-row, but Jones will have to look elsewhere to get his back-row balance just right.
"My preference would be Luke Wallace who is an out and out No 7 but I don't think Eddie is going to go with him," explained Greenwood.
"My other tendency would be that with the athleticism of Josh Beaumont is to tell him to go and play No 7. The safer option would the physicality of Nathan Hughes who is slightly older and perhaps a bit more ready for the big occasion. But I would not be afraid of giving Josh Beaumont a run out at international level.