It’s yet another injury setback for Clarke, who came back from an ankle injury against the Wallabies at Eden Park in September. He was a force in the early exchanges of that test, but was forced out of the contest early due to injury.
After playing 80 minutes against Ireland, he left Murrayfield 44 minutes into the contest against Scotland.
The All Blacks have options on the left wing to replace Clarke, with Rieko Ioane, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Sevu Reece all having experience there at test level. Reece started in the No 11 jersey for the All Blacks XV last weekend against England A before rejoining the main All Blacks team this week.
While the side will be without Clarke, Holland had more positive news about Scott Barrett, who is expected to be available to play against England.
The All Blacks captain needed stitches after his right leg was cut open early in the test against Ireland in Chicago.
“He’s tracking reasonably well. I’ve just come out of a lineout meeting with him ... we’ll see what happens with that, but he’s tracking nicely and a decision will be made on that in the middle part of the week.”
The All Blacks go into Twickenham looking to put a halt to England’s nine-game winning streak, their last defeat coming against Ireland during the Six Nations at the start of February.
“I’m feeling pretty excited. The boys are feeling a bit battered and bruised today after a pretty physical game, so how we approach the next couple of days is really important to get guys back up and humming again before the back end of the week,” Holland said.
“There was some really good stuff in the game over the weekend, and some spots where a good Scottish side put us under pressure, so we’ll address a couple of little things where we can take pressure off ourselves and [give it] back to the opposition.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
