Ward-Smith has been in superb form for Bristol this season

Ward-Smith, who had been tipped to make his England debut against Scotland on Saturday, underwent a scan on Monday which will be analysed by Bristol.

The 29-year-old was stretchered off after just 14 minutes.

He suffered a dislocated kneecap and a suspected ruptured patella in a pile-up on his own line.

Ward-Smith was given oxygen on the field before being taken to hospital.

SIX NATIONS BLOG I couldn't watch the endless repeats of Ward-Smith's injury - I've done it myself five times BBC Sport blogger Mark Orlovac More on our Six Nations blog

Bristol coach Richard Hill confirmed Ward-Smith's England debut will almost certainly now have to be put on hold until this summer's tour to South Africa at the earliest.

"The dislocated kneecap is probably a six-week injury with no complications," he said.

"Although it was put back into place on the pitch, that's his Six Nations over.

"But if he's ruptured his patella tendon then that's a six-monther and we just have to wait to see the results of the scan.

"It's a terrible thing to happen to a young man. It's really cruel luck for him and we all knew what it meant as soon as it happened - it really rocked our players.

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"We didn't think about resting him from this game. Had we known he'd definitely been selected then maybe we would have done so, but he'd probably have wanted to play anyway."

Ward-Smith has been in superb form this season and has been hailed as one of the reasons for Bristol's stunning Premiership campaign.

He was born in New Zealand and joined Bristol from Plymouth Albion in 2005 and represented England A against Ireland at Kingsholm last March.