Nature cast Martin Johnson with furrows in his brow, but one or two may have been ironed out yesterday when news came in on the latest casualties to established England internationals. Johnson, the team manager, will name this morning his 32-strong squad to tour New Zealand next month and a new era will have begun.

Johnson was not the only one waiting anxiously by his telephone. Gloucester, London Wasps and Bath seek to play their strongest available XVs in Sunday's Guinness Premiership play-offs and all three clubs were affected by injuries last Saturday. The most serious concerns are for Mike Tindall, the Gloucester centre and potential England captain, and Lee Mears, Bath's hooker.

Tindall had a scan yesterday on his left ankle, damaged during the 8-6 win over Bath. The club's medical team will monitor his progress over the next 48 hours and a decision on whether he can play against Leicester at Kingsholm will be left until the last minute. This did not stop Gloucester, however, announcing that Matthew Watkins, the former Wales centre, has signed from Llanelli Scarlets for two years.

Mears has a sore shoulder and is more of a doubt for the confrontation with Wasps at High Wycombe than Matt Stevens, his front-row colleague, whose left knee is responding well to treatment. Wasps themselves have yet to rule out Paul Sackey. The England wing, surely one of the first names in Johnson's starting XV, is receiving intensive rehabilitation to the strained medial cruciate ligament of his right knee after leaving Leeds on crutches last Saturday night.

At this stage, it does not seem that any of that quartet will be unavailable to Johnson and only Jonny Wilkinson, Lewis Moody and Louis Deacon are definitely ruled out by injury. Phil Vickery, who led England under Brian Ashton, is fast recovering from a damaged knee and, were Wasps to reach the Premiership final at Twickenham on May 31, could be fit, but it would be a tough call to put him on the flight to New Zealand 24 hours later.

Toby Flood and Jamie Noon, the Newcastle Falcons midfield pair, have concerns with knee and ankle injuries respectively and Johnson must decide whether Harry Ellis, who missed most of the season after a knee reconstruction, is due for reintegration at England level and whether James Simpson-Daniel, the Gloucester wing, is in greater need of a shoulder operation than a close-season tour.

But Johnson has the opportunity to send a decently experienced squad to play two internationals in Auckland and Christchurch against a New Zealand team hit by a series of defections to Europe. Both countries have a shortage at lock but Graham Henry, the All Blacks coach, is not about to plunge into the younger end of his playing pool; nor will Johnson but he can leaven his squad with the uncapped likes of Danny Care, Ben Foden, Dylan Hartley and Tom Guest.

This is not a development tour, unlike the England Saxons squad of 28 for the Churchill Cup that will also be named today, and valuable ranking points for the seedings in the 2011 World Cup hang in the balance.

Johnson could not, for instance, take Ryan Lamb at fly half as well as Danny Cipriani, so Charlie Hodgson, will surely tour. The make-up of the back three will have required much discussion, but experience will be the key. That could work against Richard Haughton, of Saracens, and Topsy Ojo, of London Irish.

David Hands’s England tour squad:

Backs: I Balshaw, B Foden, J Lewsey, P Sackey, D Strettle, T Varndell, O Barkley, M Tait, M Tindall, D Cipriani, C Hodgson, D Care, P Richards, R Wigglesworth.

Forwards: T Payne, A Sheridan, M Stevens, N Wood, G Chuter, D Hartley, L Mears, S Borthwick, D Grewcock, B Kay, S Shaw, T Croft, N Easter, T Guest, J Haskell, M Lipman, T Rees, J Worsley.