WILL Butler’s injury is “not quite as serious” as first feared, according to England under 20s head coach Steve Bates.

The 20-year-old centre dislocated his elbow in Worcester Warriors’ end-of-season 32-24 defeat at Northampton Saints two weeks ago.

The blow cast doubts over the prospect of him playing in the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in France which starts later this month.

But there appears to be a glimmer of hope as Bates waits for a verdict from medics on Butler’s fitness before making a final decision on his squad.

“We will have to see,” said Bates after watching his side lose 26-12 to South Africa under 20s at Sixways last Friday.

“When he went off I think the prognosis wasn’t great, but from what I have been told it is actually not quite as serious as it first looked.

“We will keep an eye on him today and Tuesday and see where he is.”

Butler was trusted with the captaincy for Warriors’ Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign and skippered England against Scotland in the Six Nations Under 20 Championship in February.

He looked set to finish his season off in style when he scored two tries in the first 11 minutes at Northampton before leaving the field with his arm in a sling.

“I think his radius popped out of the joint momentarily,” Bates continued.

“He twisted his arm and it went back in, so that was an uncomfortable injury.

“I think (his involvement in the world championship) will all depend on how he responds to treatment and what the doctor and physio say about the length of recovery for that type of injury.”

Bates is poised to announce his squad for the tournament this week with Warriors’ academy aces Ollie Lawrence, Ted Hill, James Scott and Beck Cutting also hoping to get the call.

“We are pretty much there,” said Bates on how close he was to knowing who would be on the plane to France.

“There are one or two spaces that we are still not quite sure about and we will reflect on the (South Africa) game with that in mind.

“That’s another very useful consequence of having that match against some good opposition.

“It means that we are actually comparing people to the sort of experience that they might get in the World Cup which is really helpful.”

England have an impressive record in the world championship, reaching the past five finals – winning in 2016, 2014 and 2013.

Despite going into the competition on the back of a defeat to South Africa, Bates remains upbeat.

“We have got loads of work to do,” Bates added.

“But once we stopped the driving line-out I didn’t think there was a great deal that South Africa showed us that we couldn’t cope with.

“I thought we were really strong defensively, we knocked them back behind the gain line quite significantly and I thought we scrummaged well so all of those factors will be positives that we will take out of it.”