Sheridan ruled out with back injury

Rugby: London Irish prop Alex Corbisiero will make his test debut in England’s Six Nations meeting with Italy tomorrow after…

Rugby:London Irish prop Alex Corbisiero will make his test debut in England's Six Nations meeting with Italy tomorrow after Andrew Sheridan was ruled out with a back injury. Sheridan reported soreness after training yesterday and the final decision to pull him out was made by England's medical team this morning.

Corbisiero, 23, played for the Saxons over the last two weekends and trained with the senior squad earlier this week.

England manager Martin Johnson opted to bring Corbisiero, who earlier today had been named in the Exiles side to face Newcastle in the Premiership, straight into the starting team, where he will lock horns with Leicester tight-head Martin Castrogiovanni, rather than promote David Wilson off the bench.

England:B Foden (Northampton); C Ashton (Northampton), M Tindall (Gloucester, capt), S Hape (Bath), M Cueto (Sale Sharks); T Flood (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester); A Corbisiero (London Irish), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), T Palmer (Stade Francais), T Wood (Northampton), J Haskell (Stade Francais), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements:S Thompson (Leeds Carnegie), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), H Fourie (Leeds Carnegie), D Care (Harlequins), J Wilkinson (Toulon), M Banahan (Bath).