Luke Cowan-Dickie: Exeter's England hooker set to miss autumn internationals

Luke Cowan-Dickie has started six of Exeter's seven games this season

England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie is set to miss the autumn internationals after suffering an ankle ligament injury.

The 23-year-old was hurt in Exeter's European Champions Cup loss to Clermont Auvergne and will see a specialist to decide if he needs surgery.

"It's relatively serious," Exeter head coach Rob Baxter told BBC Sport.

"There's no fracture but it does look like a badly sprained ankle with some ligament damage so we're not going to be seeing him in the next few weeks."

Cowan-Dickie has won four caps, all as a replacement, and featured in two of the three Test wins over Australia in the summer.

He is the latest England player to be ruled out by injury - last month's training camp in Brighton saw several players suffer serious injuries, including Exeter team-mate Jack Nowell.

And he joins an Exeter casualty list that, in addition to Nowell, also includes Phil Dollman, Dave Ewers, Don Armand and Matt Jess.

"Luke's been playing really well and he's been a high-tempo high work rate player for us with great physicality in attack and defence," added Baxter.

"The bigger blow is for him personally as when you're on form when you're a young hooker you want to keep on going and he's been involved in some big games for us."