Another one bites the dust.
Whichever gods England angered by winning the World Cup last November are certainly getting their own back.
With two-thirds of the World Cup-winning back row having retired, Richard Hill, already a vital cog in the England machine, had assumed even more importance.
The news that he is out for up to nine months with a knee injury is a huge blow for acting coach Andy Robinson.
Hill, capped 71 times, may not have the profile of erstwhile back row colleagues Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back, but "Hilda" is the rock on which England's rise to the top of the world game was built.
Low-key and hard-working, the 31-year-old Saracens star does all the invisible bits of the game which make him a legend amongst his England team-mates.
Since winning the World Cup in November 2003, England have seen their first-choice XV ripped asunder by a combination of injury and retirements.
Of the 22 on duty that magical night in Sydney, Back, Dallaglio, Martin Johnson, Dorian West, Jason Leonard and Kyran Bracken have retired.
 | RICHARD HILL FACTFILE 1973: Born 23 May in Surrey 1993: Joins Saracens 1997: England and Lions debuts 1999: Loses to South Africa in the World Cup quarter-final 2001: Plays in first two tests of Lions Tour to Australia 2003: Wears number 6, 7 and 8 in first three games as England win Six Nations Grand Slam. Wins World Cup in November 2004: Suffers knee injury playing for Saracens |
Matt Dawson is out of favour while Hill and Josh Lewsey are injured.
As for Jonny Wilkinson, Will Greenwood, Mike Tindall, Trevor Woodman and Phil Vickery, they have only just returned from injury.
But it is the back row, considered to be the best in the world just a year ago, which has been the hardest hit.
The trio of Hill, Dallaglio and Back had become feared throughout the world.
Now coach Robinson is facing some tough choices for the matches against South Africa and Australia in November.
The cupboard is not entirely bare, though.
Joe Worsley has become an experienced and hard-tackling international while Martin Corry, who has impressed for the Lions in the past, is in fine form for Leicester.
Tigers team-mate Moody should be fit by November, so it is possible these three could form an effective back row, with Moody on the openside, Corry at number eight and Worsley on the blindside.
But once you get past those three, there's only youth and potential left.
If Hill had been available, Robinson may have been tempted to try new blood.
But with one of his few experienced heads now out of the running, it looks far less likely he will throw in inexperienced youngsters.
 Back, Dallaglio and Hill were feared by opposition teams |
Sale's Chris Jones may challenge at blindside - and he certainly adds firepower in the line out - but the career of injury-prone James Forrester seems to have temporarily stalled.
Gloucester team-mate Andy Hazell is a competitive little openside in the mould of coach Robinson himself, while the names of the Sanderson brothers, Alex and Pat, have been mentioned in dispatches.
Hugh Vyvyan, now a team-mate alongside Hill at Saracens, would also not let the side down.
And such is England's dearth of options there have been reports that the Rugby Football Union is looking for a legal loophole which would allow Ireland A openside Johnny O'Connor to play for England.
However, even if that came to pass, O'Connor is still 18 months away from qualifying for England through residency.
There can be little doubt that, with Hill on the sidelines, Robinson's room for manoeuvre has been severely restricted.
Hill was so vital to England's World Cup campaign that, despite spending most of it on the touchline with a hamstring injury, there was never any thought of sending him home.
And when he finally reappeared, against France in the semi-final, the previously misfiring England machine began to run far more smoothly.
Without Hill's impassive presence, England, already a shadow of the side that conquered the world, may be in for an even more bumpy ride.
MMIX
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