ENGLAND’s build-up to their Autumn Nations Series opener against Tonga has been disrupted by a positive test for Covid-19.

A member of Eddie Jones’s backroom staff produced the case that was confirmed by a lateral flow test taken at the squad’s Surrey training base and is now self-isolating.

Everyone else in the camp has since returned negatives from an additional round of lateral flows and has also completed a PCR test, the results of which will be known this morning.

Training today was impacted by the minor outbreak, resulting in a delay to their team announcement for the Twickenham showdown, and Jones is hopeful there will be no further complications.

“One of our backroom staff tested positive on the lateral flow, so we had to test all the players, test the rest of the staff and do PCR tests,” Jones said.

“But training was then able to proceed as normal and at this stage we are cautiously optimistic that everything will be able to proceed as normal.”