Steve Borthwick has plenty of thinking to do before England host France in the Six Nations (Image: Getty)
boss is considering rolling the dice by moving to full-back to take the game to France on Saturday.
Smith’s move from 10 means Fin Smith, who has seven caps as a replacement, is expected to be promoted from the bench for his first start at fly-half in the clash.
Harlequins’ Smith has started at 15 a handful of times, firstly in the last World Cup, but never with his namesake in the XV as well.
Marcus Smith played all but eight minutes of last year’s 33-31 defeat to France in Lyon, coming off the bench when George Furbank was injured.
It is a radical shift from Borthwick, who is seeking to break a run of seven successive defeats to Tier One nations – England’s equal worst run in history. He will name his team on Thursday.
Cadan Murley has been ruled out of the game with a foot injury suffered on his debut against Ireland on Saturday.
Marcus Smith may feature at full-back against France at Twickenham (Image: Getty)
The Harlequins’ wing is set to be scanned again in a fortnight and could return towards the end of the Six Nations.
England senior assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth said: “He’s overcome a huge amount of injuries. He gets his opportunity, he scores and assists and then he’s not able to be in the mix again the week after.”
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Saracens’ Alex Lozowski, who can play 10,12,13 and wing, has joined the squad in Bagshot.
But Sale’s Tom Roebuck, Saracens’ Elliot Daly and Northampton’s Ollie Sleightholme, or Freddie Steward, are ahead of him to start on Saturday.