Eddie Jones questions Marland Yarde's state of mind following Harlequins exit

Eddie Jones has questioned whether Marland Yarde is in the right frame of mind to compete for an England starting spot following his acrimonious departure from Harlequins.

Yarde joined Sale Sharks this week after falling out of favour at Quins, with Chris Robshaw stating the winger "had run out of lives" after missing three training sessions.

With Jonny May doubtful for England's opening autumn international against Argentina on November 11, Jones will bring in reinforcements on Sunday night, but the head coach hinted Yarde is not in the running.

The England head coach told Sky Sports News: "We left Marland out because Denny [Solomona] has scored more tries than him.

"Now he's been in that difficult situation with his club, and whether psychologically he's in the right spot to come and compete for a spot with England.

"We have to assess, so therefore we could look further afield.

"It has been a difficult time for him. When you've played for a club from a young age, it's been the club that you love, and then you move away.

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"It's like the end of a marriage and sometimes you need a period to reassess and re-evaluate your life, reset your goals.

"Maybe he's going through that now and coming to the England camp is intense. He's got to compete for a spot, he's got to be at his absolute best."

Jones is confident most of the England squad will be able to train on Friday before they leave their Portugal training camp, including Joe Launchbury, Semesa Rokoduguni, Solomona, Piers Francis and Charlie Ewels.

Jones says the current spate of injuries is the worst he has encountered since becoming England coach. However, he doesn't believe there is a crisis in rugby despite the high number of injuries over the opening months of the season.

"This is my third year in the job and I've found the players to be in the most difficult condition in this camp," said Jones.

"We've had the Lions guys come back, they've all had short pre-seasons. They're back playing regularly but are deconditioned to a large extent. We've had them on different programmes here and by the end of the week they'll be back ready to go.

"We've had four or five players come in with knocks from games, which has stopped them from training, and I had one or two either suffer an injury in training or post-training.

"Poor Marcus Smith kicked his foot into the ground. Who's making the tea and cleaning the boots? Zach Mercer is doing double time!

Is there a trend? I think it's just a cycle, and on top of that you've got the Lions guys who are coming back from a tough series in New Zealand. That exacerbates the issue."

Watch England v Argentina live on Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Main Event on Saturday, November 11 from 2pm.