HARLEQUINS and England scrum half Danny Care will miss the Rugby World Cup after injuring the big toe on his left foot during last weekend's defeat to Wales.

Following a series of scans and specialist opinions, Care will undergo surgery this week, and will also miss the start of Quins' season.

With the recovery time anticipated to be a minimum of six weeks, Care will be ruled out of the initial 30-man England squad, to be announced on Monday.

England manager Martin Johnson said: “We are all hugely disappointed for Danny, who has worked extremely hard and has been an important part of the squad throughout our World Cup preparations.

“He featured in both warm up fixtures and was on course for selection, so this injury is really disappointing for him personally, and for us as a squad.

“Nobody wants to see a player ruled out at this stage through injury, and we all wish Danny a speedy recovery.”

Meanwhile, having lost their first pre-season friendly at Castres on Saturday, a young Quins side scraped past Esher 24-21 on Tuesday night.

Tries from Ollie Lindsay-Hague and Charlie Walker, both converted by Benjamin Urdapilleta, put Quins 14-0 up, but Esher had pulled level at 14-14 by the break.

Unconverted tries from Tom Casson and Urdapilleta then gave Quins a 24-14 advantage after the interval, before Esher made them sweat it out with a converted try.