England are trying to put the "do-or-die" status out of their minds as they prepare to face Australia in Sunday's Four Nations rugby league tournament in Melbourne.

After their disappointing 24-10 opening loss to New Zealand and the Kangaroos' thumping of PNG, England must win the AAMI Park clash to keep alive their hopes of reaching the final.

And to top it off, coach Steve McNamara is looking for a new centre after confirming the loss of hard-running Michael Shenton to ankle injury.

McNamara said the ankle ligament damage would be assessed again in the next few days before a decision was made about whether Shenton's tournament was over.

"He keeps telling us he's a good healer so we'll see how it settles down in a day or two but he's done some decent damage," McNamara said on Monday.

Leroy Cudjoe or Tony Clubb are the leading contenders to fill Shenton's position.

"We have got a few options with those boys, who haven't played so far in the tournament but they've been very impressive in practice.

"There's also Gareth Widdop, who we moved to play in the centre during the game last week, and Joel Tomkins, who can also play there.

"Michael's a loss for us but it's going to give someone else an opportunity."

England's other centre, Ryan Atkins, was also injured in a collision with a goal-post, however he said he was a certain starter in Melbourne.

McNamara said his side wouldn't change their preparations for the Australian game despite the must-win predicament.

"There won't be a different approach," he said.

"We all understand the importance of the game in terms of going further in the tournament but if we worry about the result it will affect our performance.

"We know we need to perform very, very well to beat Australia ... if we concentrate on performing it will give us the best opportunity, we won't be putting too much pressure on ourselves by just worrying too much about the result."

McNamara was pleased with how his team finished the match against New Zealand in Wellington, fighting back from 18-0 down.

"We were a little bit tentative at the start but we grew as the game went on," he said.

"The players have gained a great deal of confidence from that performance.

"If we went out and played the very best game that we could have done and been rolled over then we would have had an issue but we feel there's a lot of improvement in us."

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