Owen Farrell a doubt for England's Six Nations clash with Scotland, reveals Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones has revealed Owen Farrell is a doubt for England’s Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday but believes he has his strongest 23 for a “long time”.

The fly-half, who has been playing at centre under Jones to accommodate George Ford, limped out of training on Thursday with a leg injury, although the Australian did not reveal how it happened, instead saying the Saracens man “ran into my dog”.

Farrell is still in contention and will train again tomorrow with Jones saying “he’ll be alright” but Ben Te’o will is waiting in the wings should he be ruled out.

“Farrell's a doubt. He injured his leg,” revealed an irritable Jones on Thursday afternoon. “He ran into my dog, my dog was running around the training pitch and he ran into it. He'll be alright. [Journalist: ‘You just said he was a doubt’] Well he's got a leg injury.

“We're not training this afternoon. Tomorrow he'll train.

“Owen will be alright. He's in doubt but we think he'll be alright. We’ve got plenty of backups. Ben Te’o is a fantastic player.

When asked what actually happened, Jones replied: “Well, you don’t know that.”

Billy Vunipola returns to the matchday squad for the first time in the championship since his knee injury last year, but starts on the bench, rather than at No 8, as reported after an apparent team ‘leak’ on Wednesday.

Vunipola was named on a whiteboard during training leading to speculation he would start, but he is the only player whose name was written down who isn’t starting against the Scots.

“The Daily Telegraph picked him [Billy] for us, so we decided to change it. He's always in contention, but we didn't choose him,” Jones added.

“Every week it gets harder, and that's the great thing. It's probably the strongest 23 we've selected for a long time.”