Kyle Sinckler and Mako Vunipola have been added to the England squad for Saturday’s Six Nations game against Italy, the Rugby Football Union (EFU) said on Tuesday.
The two props missed the 11-6 defeat at the hands of Scotland on Saturday at Twickenham.
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Sinckler was unavailable after being handed a two-week ban for swearing at a referee while Vunipola was out with an Achilles injury.
The forwards have replaced Exeter Chiefs’ Harry Williams and Wasps’ Tom West in the squad.
England coach Eddie Jones said: “They’re both exceptional players. Mako is the elder statesman of the side, an experienced player. Kyle was dynamic for us during the autumn. It’s good to have those two back but it was a great experience for Ellis and Will to have started on the weekend. They’ll both have benefited from that experience.”
England and Italy meet in London to start the second round of Six Nations fixtures, with both sides looking to bounce back from opening defeats.
Italy suffered a heavy home defeat against France and England’s Billy Vunipola wants the team to respond after a poor performance against Scotland.
“We are honest with each other and once you have that basis of honesty you can move on and improve,” Vunipola told reporters at a news conference.
“We’ve only got a week to do it but that’s probably the best thing for us. I know Eddie’s taken a lot of the flak but it’s on us players to go out and perform and we didn’t.
“I take a lot of the blame because a lot of my work is helping put the team on the front foot and I didn’t do that. That’s part of many things that make the team click and it just didn’t happen.
“I just didn’t put myself in the right positions. I’ll look at it and see where I can help the team achieve more. This happened last year but we managed to pull it back. It’s massive on all of us to get around each other and make sure whatever we have to fix we do it as soon as possible.”
Information from Reuters was included in this report.