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Tom Johnson is likely to miss England's opening Six Nations matches.

The Exeter flanker , external during the 29-20 Heineken Cup loss against Leinster with a knee injury and is set to be out for a few weeks.

"We don't think we're talking about major reconstructive surgery," Exeter boss Rob Baxter told 91Èȱ¬ South West.

"So as long as the MRI scan shows that and backs that up then there is a possibility it could be weeks of recovery rather than months."

England's first game is the Calcutta Cup match with Scotland at Twickenham on Saturday 2 February.

Stuart Lancaster has brought uncapped Worcester back-row forward Matt Kvesic into the England squad as cover for Johnson.

The 30-year-old Exeter flanker won his first England cap during the tour of South Africa last summer and played all three Tests against the Springboks.

He also appeared against , external and , external last autumn, scoring his first England try against the Pacific islanders, but was overlooked for the autumn games against South Africa and New Zealand,

"We know it's a relatively severe injury, he's not had an MRI scan yet which will give us a bit more detail.

"I think our feeling is the injury could have been worse than it is, but I don't want to say too much until he's had the complete scan results," Baxter added.