Thursday 24 September 2015 07:46, UK
Former England fly-half Toby Flood fears George Ford may be psychologically scarred by being dropped for England's World Cup clash with Wales.
Saracens stand-off Owen Farrell is set to be handed the number 10 shirt in a revamped midfield that will feature Sam Burgess at inside centre with Brad Barritt moving to outside centre, according to Sky sources.
Farrell lost his place to Ford during the November 2014 internationals following some erratic displays for England, but Stuart Lancaster was forced to reconsider how he will deploy his backline following Jonathan Joseph's injury.
Flood, who won 60 caps for England from 2006 to 2013, believes the 22-year-old has every right to feel "pretty devastated" by the direction Lancaster has taken.
"George hasn't done a huge amount wrong and I could see why he potentially was a little bit upset with the decision," Flood told Kicca.
"He would be allowed to be because ultimately he has been dropped when he hasn't actually played that badly.
"He has played a little bit hit and miss against France, a tough game against Fiji but that was always going to be the case. I think maybe this is going to hurt him a little bit mentally.
"He will be frustrated from this decision. He certainly would have felt he hadn't done much wrong and much to merit this decision.
"Owen will come in and he is a Lion and he has a wealth of experience, but the pressure certainly will be on this decision because England have shown great fluency with George at 10, a great want and desire to attack.
"Of course this is the World Cup, those things change and maybe Owen is the right decision to control this match, but really I think George will be pretty devastated by this decision because he has worked so hard to get that number one spot.
"One bad game, one average match when he really hasn't done too much wrong and he has lost the position will be hard, hard to take."
