England prop Andrew Sheridan has been ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations rugby clash with Italy after suffering a back injury, team manager Martin Johnson said on Friday.

Powerful loosehead Sheridan will be replaced in England's starting line-up by London Irish's Alex Corbisiero, who will be making his Test debut in the front row.

Corbisiero - who was not in England's 22-man squad for the Italy game - is promoted ahead of David Wilson, who remains on the bench.

Johnson said he had no qualms about pitting Corbisiero against Italy's powerful scrum, where he will be packing down against Leicester's Martin Castrogiovanni.

"We have no qualms putting him in there at loose-head and starting. David covers loose-head from the bench but Alex has more experience there," Johnson said. "We trust all the squad to play."

Corbisiero was born in New York, where his grandfather moved to from Naples in the 1950s to start a restaurant.

The 23-year-old has played for England at every age group since the under-18s and was a member of the under-20s side which won the Grand Slam in 2008. He has made 21 appearances for London Irish this season including seven starts.

Meanwhile, Italy promoted Fabio Semenzato from the bench to the starting line-up allowing the 24-year-old Treviso scrum-half to make his Azzurri debut.

Pablo Canavosio had been selected to start at number nine but told coaches that he didn't feel he was fit enough to last a whole match.

"Before our run-out at Twickenham this afternoon Pablo, showing a great sense of responsibility towards the team, told us that he still felt a general fatigue and that he didn't feel ready to play a full 80 minutes," said team manager Luigi Troiani.

"The technical staff therefore decided to pick Semenzato from the start and to eventually use Canavosio later on during the match."

Semenzato only received a call-up to the squad on Sunday after first choice scrum-half Eduardo Gori had been ruled out with a dislocated shoulder, sustained against Ireland last Saturday.

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