Sam Underhill to miss autumn internationals after biceps rupture

England flanker Sam Underhill will miss the Nations Championship this autumn after rupturing his biceps in Bath's opening Premiership game, going off in the 48th minute of the win at The Stoop against Harlequins.

Underhill played 22 games for Bath last season. He has been capped 51 times by England and featured in all five of their Six Nations matches this year. He missed the summer internationals against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina to have an operation on a shoulder injury.

Underhill went off in the 48th minute of Bath's victory at The Stoop and was seen at the end of the game with strapping around his arm. Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said he knew straight away the injury was serious, which was why he went immediately over to Underhill when he came off the pitch. "There are a few types of injuries where I just want to know straight away because I know the impact that it has longer term and I always feel for the players, so that's why I went straight down," Van Graan told BBC Radio Somerset.

Van Graan described his initial concerns and the scan findings. "At the time I thought, we need to wait for a scan but this could be a biceps rupture. The scan turned out to be exactly that."

Van Graan also set out the immediate medical plan. "He will get operated on on Thursday, that's a few months out of the game - not ideal from Sam's point of view."

Bath's squad is carrying a number of other injuries: new signing Jamie Bhatti broke a forearm during pre-season, fellow prop Vilikesa Sela is out until November with a toe injury picked up in pre-season, and wing Will Muir has no return date yet after injuring his shoulder last season. Ben Spencer and Louie Hennessey are expected to return to team training in October. Bath's Boxing Day game with Leicester was moved back a day.

Bath expect the 30-year-old to be out until December or January, which will rule him out of a large portion of the domestic season and England's three internationals against Australia, Japan and New Zealand in November.