They are keeping everything very close to their chests and originally were going to go down the "injuries" route when making team selections. The fact it was puton social media today killed that option though.

Typical England management trying to save face covering up instead of making the hard, strict and correct action if true.

You do wrong representing your country as an ambassador then you are out with very little chance of return in the near future. It's that simple.

This is assuming as you say they were going down the injury route.

So were others definately involved or not??

What an idiot. Was lucky to be in the squad anyway, and he's blown it. The biggest and daftest odd the BDLs

So losing the best hooker in the league by a country mile this season isn't a big loss when coming up against the best country in Rugby League well whatever it is your smoking I'd love to join you.

It's not so bad when you consider that the best hooker in the league by a country mile will be selected at 9 on Saturday. And, he's perfectly capable of playing 60-70 minutes at the top of his game against any side.

Also, Micky Higham and Shaun Lunt were the form hookers this season by a long way.

Shaun Lunt was the best hooker in the league by a country mile.

If the rumours of Hardaker's involvement are true it adds weight to the rumours about his behaviour at Leeds.

Yes, yes I know that's a lot of rumours.

From what I have heard tonight (yes I know, it's being doing the rounds forever), Hardaker may not be a problem at Leeds much longer.

Hope this is not true.

Such a good player with potential to get better.Would hate to see him tearing it up for the next decade wearing cherry and white for example.

Apparently all the above mentioned were.

Hock going home was the easiest choice for Steve MC. What a nightmare few days on eve of World Cup!

Depends. He is a good player but if he's doing the wrong things off the field then that's not someone we need in our club. What message does it give to the youngsters?

We certainly don't owe him a living so if he wants to mess around then perhaps another club is the best option for all.

That being said..... I'm just playing devil's advocate here, I hope he doesn't go too

England's world cup is turning into a disaster before it has even begun. It's going to take a massive effort just to avoid the biggest embarassment for the national side in a generation. Remember, Melbourne 2008 was on sky......at stupid o'clock in the morning, no one saw it.

This is on at a prime time slot, saturday afternoon, FTA TV, with a whole bunch of advertising behind it. Mother of god.

It's been a farce from the start so far. The pointless camp in south africa, the dire warm up game, and now this.

Anyone who says it was just a friendly, simply look at what has been said. Mcnamara has said the players had the wrong attitude, Sinfield has said they did everything to prepare and the defeat shocked them.

Firstly, if the attitude is wrong warming up for the biggest tournament in a generation, you don't have the mentality to go on a win the thing.

Secondly, if the attitude is wrong, then with hindsight the defeat is expected. But as far as what sinfield has said they don't know what went wrong, they'll work hard and it seems they'll hope something magically clicks against australia.

I know you can't read too much into what is said in the press, but the whole thing just sounds like a disjointed rabble. I know it's punishable by death to criticise sinfield on here but this whole situation just seems to be too much for him to deal with.

This situation with Hock and the rumour surrounding it, we don't know what's happened before. But it seems that theres unprofessional, and unhappy cliques within the camp. That's a recipe for failure.

The most annoying thing is we have 2 great halfbacks who would be ideal and we've somehow managed to f*ck that up through circumstance and poor selection. Brough got impatient and sodded off (after being continually overlooked by banana) and smith has been overlooked as well. 2 of widdop, brough and smith should have been the halfbacks. It's certainly a much better choice than sinfield and chase, who will be woeful on saturday.

England will be well beaten on saturday, they'll struggle against Fiji who are a very physical skilfull team but they'll get through to the quarters on ac of beating ireland.

Whether they get thrashed by NZ in the quarters or the semis simply depends on how the other groups play out, i'm not sure how it's seeded.

It's going to be another torrid world cup for england. I'm sorry if this all sounds very negative or massively knee jerk but it's how i see things playing out, the reality.

From what I have heard, Hardakers indiscretion is no different to what Bailey has done a few times before him, and Delaney on a couple of occassions last year.

Brilliant stuff. What's wrong with these people? "Want to play in a World Cup?" "No ta, rather £$%^ around with my mates and act like a twelve year old."

If this is true, I think McIlorum would be a miss. But, if what is being rumoured about their conduct is true, none of them will be missed. And I'd have sent them all home. It's a World Cup. Bad enough in the course of normal season, but you'd get over it. Surely, up against the very best in the world, when things on the pitch will be hard enough, they could take it a bit more seriously.

On the plus side, I'm glad Ferres gets his chance.

I haven't heard the rumours but they should all be treated equally. If Hock has to go then the others should, and bring in the young lads from the Knights squad who want to give it their all.

It's a sad day for England RL.