LONDON, March 8 – Veteran England lock Simon Shaw will miss Saturday's Calcutta Cup Six Nations clash away to Scotland at Murrayfield with a shoulder injury, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) announced Monday.Shaw, 36, injured his shoulder just four minutes into England’s 20-16 loss to Ireland at Twickenham last time out on February 27.
Stade Francais’ Tom Palmer has been called up as a replacement for Shaw just a week after the club were involved in a furious row with the RFU over England’s failure to let flanker James Haskell play in a French Top 14 clash even though there were no Six Nations fixtures last weekend.
Meanwhile World Cup-winning centre Mike Tindall has been called into manager Martin Johnson’s squad after recovering from a hamstring problem.
Tindall replaces Dan Hipkiss, who didn’t feature in the matchday 22 against Ireland, after the Leicester centre was declared unavailable because of an ankle injury.
Palmer, who joined Stade from Wasps before the start of this season, has not played for England since the defeat by world champions South Africa at Twickenham in 2008 but he could be on the bench at Murrayfield.
Tindall, who played in the 2003 World Cup final winning side captained by Johnson, won the last of his 60 caps against Scotland last year.
The 31-year-old missed the November international campaign with a severe hamstring injury which kept him out of action for 17 weeks in total.
Tindall started his second game back against Wasps at the weekend and scored a try in Gloucester’s 24-19 defeat.
But he does not expect to start in Edinburgh.
"It would be very nice but I would be surprised," Tindall said at the weekend.
England are reviewing the fitness of back-up fly-half Toby Flood, who suffered a head injury playing for Leicester last weekend, and have called up Shane Geraghty as cover.
Full-back Delon Armitage was said to be "recovering well" by the RFU from a rib injury but England have still brought in Gloucester’s Olly Morgan.
Reserve No 8 Dan Ward-Smith had his fitness reviewed on Monday after sustaining a knee injury playing for Wasps last weekend.
Following Ward-Smith’s injury, Leeds’s Hendre Fourie was called into the England squad for the first time.
Both Johnson and Scotland coach Andy Robinson are due to name their teams on Tuesday.
