Corbisiero blow for England

England prop Alex Corbisiero has been ruled out of Saturday's opening QBE International against Australia with a knee injury, head coach Stuart Lancaster has announced.

Corbisiero twisted his left knee while on club duty for Northampton just over two weeks ago and has failed to recover in time to face the Wallabies at Twickenham.

However, he is expected to return against Argentina on November 9.

"Alex won't be available for Australia but he's looking good for the following weekend," Lancaster said.

Lancaster confirmed Corbisiero's injury is unrelated to the knee condition that forced him to miss last season's RBS 6 Nations.

"We need to make sure we manage his return to play and recovery over the next four or five days," he said.

"The injury is a bang he took in the Castres game, it could happen to anyone."

Lancaster is confident hooker Dylan Hartley and prop David Wilson will be available for selection when the team is announced on Thursday morning.

Hartley and Wilson are suffering from ankle and calf injuries respectively, resulting in Rob Webber and Henry Thomas being added to the squad as injury cover on Sunday night.

"Dylan and David are making good progress and I'm pretty optimistic that both will be available to train fully, definitely by Thursday," Lancaster said.

"Dylan can throw in the line-outs, we just don't want to risk him in the live session tomorrow. They've both played a lot of rugby this season."

Australia have lost seven of their 10 matches this year, but triumphed 20-14 at Twickenham last November.

"The Wallabies are improving massively in their quality of performances. I saw them play Argentina and New Zealand and they were right up there," Lancaster said.

"We know we face a massive threat against them. They're a good side with quality players. We won't be taking them for granted - we lost to them last year."