Jonny Wilkinson ruled out of England's autumn internationals

Jonny Wilkinson will not play for England in any of their four autumn internationals at Twickenham. The fly-half has pulled out of the squad to have treatment on a shoulder injury that will keep him out of action for a month. He has been replaced by Sale's Charlie Hodgson. Wilkinson will not need surgery and is expected to return for Toulon before the second block of Heineken Cup matches in December. The news is another massive blow for the fly-half who had returned to his best form since moving to France after a long period on the sidelines. Wilkinson lost his place as England's starting fly-half at the end of last year's Six Nations but he remained a key figure in Johnson's squad and it comes as a big blow ahead of the games against New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and South Africa. Toby Flood is now certain to start against the All Blacks with Hodgson set to be named in a Test squad for the first time since the 2008 summer tour of New Zealand. "Jonny has been assessed on a daily basis this week," said the England team manager, Martin Johnson. "It's now clear that he will need a period of rehab of around four weeks and this will be carried out in conjunction with Toulon." Wilkinson saw a specialist on Tuesday after sustaining the injury in Toulon's defeat to Stade Français last weekend. England always knew he was doubtful for the New Zealand game on 6 November but it became apparent over the last 48 hours that Wilkinson would be sidelined for the whole Investec series. Johnson released three more players from the squad to appear for their clubs in the Aviva Premiership this weekend, the Gloucester prop, Paul Doran-Jones, the Bath three-quarter, Matt Banahan, and the Wasps flanker, Joe Worsley. Ireland believe their captain, Brian O'Driscoll, will recover from a hamstring problem to lead the side against South Africa next week in a match that will mark the official opening of the Aviva Stadium, but his fellow Lion, Keith Earls, is likely to be ruled out by an ankle injury. New Zealand, who face Australia in Hong Kong tomorrow, will be without the wing Sitiveni Sivivatu, on their grand slam tour of Europe next month. He suffered a knee injury in training this week having just returned after five months out of action with a shoulder problem.