England captain Lewis Moody has failed to recover from a knee injury and will miss his side’s opening World Cup match against Argentina in Dunedin on Saturday, manager Martin Johnson has said.
“Lewis won’t play at the weekend,” Johnson told reporters in Dunedin on Monday. “It was quite a simple decision to hold him back another week.”
Moody damaged knee ligaments playing for Bath in January and originally thought it was only a minor problem but, after breaking down again when coming off the bench for his club in February, missed the entire Six Nations campaign.
He was replaced as captain by centre Mike Tindall with Tom Wood performing impressively at openside flanker.
Moody returned for England for their warmup matches in August, but limped off after 60 minutes in their 23-19 victory over Wales at Twickenham on Aug. 9.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) described it at the time as a mild ligament strain.
Moody was named as squad captain for the World Cup, which begins on Friday when hosts New Zealand play Tonga at Eden Park, though Johnson said the openside flanker was not quite ready to return to action.
“He’s not a million miles away, it’s just one of those calls,” Johnson added.
“Is he ready to play a big test match this week? Not quite.”
After the Argentina clash, England face Georgia on Sept. 18 also in Dunedin.
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