Saints star Langdon still in contention for England selection after suffering shoulder injury

England have opted to select Bristol Bears hooker Gabriel Oghre along with Saracens duo Jamie George and Theo Dan.

Langdon's cause wasn't helped by the fact he picked up a shoulder injury during Saints' Gallagher Premiership final win against Bath on Saturday.

Borthwick explained: “Curtis Langdon went off with a stinger injury, he was very much in contention for selection.

"He had some weakness post-game and the next morning, but we don’t think it’s a long-term injury. We expect him to recover within a short period of time.

"He was one who was in contention for selection. Today from both a medical and a disciplinary point of view, I wanted to make sure this selection was definitive.

“The squad meets this afternoon (Monday), we train tomorrow morning, we fly Wednesday morning.

"This is a squad that’s coming together in a couple of hours’ time, and I want to start our preparation straight away.

“Both (Langdon and Bath prop Beno Obano) very were much in the frame, and subsequent to recovery from injury and disciplinary processes, they are players that are considered to go on a standby list.

"I’ll always notify players who are the players I’m going to be looking to to call up should we need to call players out.

"And subsequent to situations, those two players are potentials for that list.”

Seven Saints players were named in the England squad ahead of matches against Japan and New Zealand in the coming weeks.

Among them was uncapped wing Ollie Sleightholme, who finished the season as the Premiership's top try scorer with 15.

“You mention Ollie Sleightholme, clearly his point of difference is to beat defenders and find the tryline," Borthwick said.

"The top try-scorer in the Premiership, he has incredible pace and we want that in this England team.

“I’ve spoken to him several times throughout the season. we can talk a lot about what he does in the attacking side, he’s beaten such a huge number of defenders, and clearly I want people who have that point of difference of scoring tries.

"The other thing is he’s a very effective defender. You can see how important this defensive system has been to us, over just five games in the Six Nations.

"We see him fitting into that system very, very well.”

Fin Smith is one of two fly-halves selected by Borthwick, with Marcus Smith also called up.

But Sale Sharks No.10 George Ford has missed out due to an Achilles injury.

"We’ve picked two specialist fly-halves in Marcus and Fin," Borthwick said. "They are two world class fly-halves.

"We also have players who can support them; George Furbank has played plenty of minutes at fly-half, as well as Henry Slade.

“We’re disappointed George (Ford) is unavailable for selection for this series. I expect him to be fit at the start of next season. He should recover from the injury throughout this summer.

"Any injury to a player is an opportunity for another player. I expect Marcus and Fin to seize the opportunity by producing winning performances.

“Now, clearly normally I am carrying three fly-halves in the squad, we carried three fly-halves in the World Cup, three fly-halves during the Six Nations. Now this one there’s only two specialist position fly-halves. Clearly that gives them more space.

“I started George Ford in all five of the Six Nations games, clearly there is an opportunity for a different starting fly-half, going to be playing against Japan in 12 days’ time. The opportunity is there for that fly-half to really grab this team and take it forward.

“Always being supported by the other fly-half – that is a key element. You need depth of players and Marcus’s ability… be clear… Marcus is a 10 who can play 15. That gives the ability that potentially there is a situation where Fin and Marcus are on the pitch together.”