Joe Cokanasiga a doubt for England's Six Nations opener with Ireland after suffering medial ligament damage

Bath wing Joe Cokanasiga is in a race to recover from injury in time for England’s opening match of the Six Nations against reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland.

Eddie Jones’ side begin their 2019 campaign in Dublin on Feb 2. They have not won on Irish soil ​since 2013 and have failed to register a try there in their past three visits. Now they could be without breakthrough star Cokanasiga for the Six Nations opener.

The 21-year-old appeared to damage his knee in the 79th minute of Bath’s 17-10 defeat to Leinster on Saturday in the Champions Cup. He was helped from the field and faces over a month on the sidelines while his medial ligament heals.

“He’s got a grade two medial ligament, which happened on the weekend near the end of the game,” explained Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder, who was not yet certain of the exact lay-off.

“It’s really unfortunate for Joe. That could be anything from two to six weeks. We’re just waiting to hear back from the specialists and to get some confirmation on it.

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“It could [put his Six Nations in doubt]. We initially thought it was a little one and he would be out for one or two weeks but it was upgraded. We don’t quite know – it could put him out for one or two more.”

Cokanasiga has been ruled out of Bath’s return fixture at the Aviva Stadium this weekend, his setback halting an extremely promising season.

Having made a try-scoring Test debut against Japan in November, Cokanasiga also crossed the whitewash during England’s 37-18 victory over Australia the following weekend.

However, he now joins Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson on Bath’s list of backline casualties.

“These things happen in rugby,” Blackadder added. “It seems to happen a lot and it seems to be freakish sort of stuff, too. It’s not any one thing. It’s just part and parcel of the game.”

In better news for Blackadder and Eddie Jones, Joseph may feature for Bath by the end of 2018 following his long lay-off after foot surgery. Bath duo Taulupe Faletau (fractured forearm) and Rhys Priestland (adductor strain) are also in line to return before the end of December.

As for their upcoming trip across the Irish Sea, fly-half Freddie Burns was described as “touch and go” due to a hairline fracture of his little toe, with Zach Mercer also in contention after missing Saturday’s contest.

“I think we can take a lot of confidence from the strategy,” Blackadder added of Bath’s performance. “I thought we got the strategy right. The breakdown and the collision were a major focus for us and I thought we dominated that for most of the game.

“When we went back through and looked at it there were a lot of opportunities that we didn’t quite take. It just shows how ruthless Leinster are. They only got a couple of opportunities and took them.

“We were right in there. Were it not for a couple of moments in the game we could have had a draw.”

That said, Blackadder anticipates a sterner challenge from the champions: “I expect them to be better. They’ll probably say that they were rusty. I think they’ll come a lot harder at the breakdown and they’ll look at their performance and be disappointed.

“But I think we played well, asked a lot of questions of Leinster and we’re certainly not afraid to go over there and try to build our game.”