British & Irish Lions winger Christian Wade faces up to six months out of the game after injuring his foot against London Irish last weekend.
The London Wasps star is to undergo surgery to repair significant damage to his mid-foot area and looks set to miss England’s entire Six Nations campaign.
The 22-year-old finished last season’s Premiership campaign as joint top try scorer with teammate Tom Varndell, notching 13 league tries and 18 in total.
A former England Sevens star, Wade won his first full cap in the 15-man game against Argentina last summer and was a late call-up to the British & Irish Lions squad.
Wade made one appearance in total, playing the full 80 minutes of the 14-12 defeat to the Brumbies at the Canberra Stadium.
"It is devastating news for both the player and the club,” said London Wasps director of rugby Dai Young.
“Christian was hugely unlucky to miss out on being capped this autumn with England and he had hoped to push on and put in some good performances for Wasps to get him in contention for Six Nations selection.
“It is a huge blow for him but he is a young player with a huge future and his time will come around again.”
