David Strettle will miss the World Cup due to the broken bone in his left foot, England boss Brian Ashton confirmed Thursday.
The Harlequins winger, who suffered the injury training at England's University of Bath base on Tuesday, was to have a screw inserted into the fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot in London later Thursday.
The three-times capped winger should be able to play again in 12 weeks' time.
"On behalf of the squad I feel desperately sorry for David as, like many others, I am sure he would have made a huge contribution to our 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign," head coach Ashton said.
"The England medical team will be in regular contact with their counterparts at Harlequins and I look forward to seeing David playing again in the not too distant future."
Strettle had appeared to be a certainty for Ashton's elite World Cup group. The 24-year-old made a try-scoring Test debut against Ireland during the Six Nations Championship last season, and he also started subsequent games against France and Wales.
He toured South Africa with England in May and June, but illness dashed his hopes of featuring in the two-Test series.
If Ashton decides to draft a replacement into his training squad, those in contention would probably include Iain Balshaw, James Simpson-Daniel, Tom Voyce and Dan Scarbrough. Ashton will name his 30-man squad next Tuesday.
Strettle's absence from the World Cup means that it looks certain Paul Sackey, Josh Lewsey, Jason Robinson and Mark Cueto will fill four of the back-three slots.
Nick Abendanon and Danny Cipriani could face a straight fight for a fifth berth. While Strettle has gone from Ashton's World Cup plans, Gloucester centre Mike Tindall remains with the training squad.
Tindall is battling to recover in time from a broken leg sustained four months ago and has been unable to take part in full training.
Ashton though, is likely to leave any decision until the last minute, and will certainly not reach a verdict on Tindall prior to Saturday's second World Cup warm-up game against France at Twickenham.
Cueto, Peter Richards and Tom Rees are all currently nursing various injuries, but are all on course to resume training with the squad next Monday.