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Experienced England defender Kyle Walker has retired from international football with immediate effect.

The 35-year-old Burnley full-back has decided to call time on his career after winning 96 caps for the Three Lions and featuring at five major tournaments.

Walker won the last of those caps in a friendly against Senegal at the City Ground in June 2025.

“I am sad to be making this decision, but I’m also very proud of what I’ve achieved with England,” he said.

Number eight Aaron Wainwright is “banged up” but set to feature in Wales’ Six Nations finale against Italy on Saturday.

The Dragons forward has started all four games of the championship, three times in his preferred position of number eight and at blind-side flanker versus France.

The 28-year-old overcame a blow to his hip to start against Ireland but was replaced by Olly Cracknell early in the second half.

“Aaron is a warrior, so he keeps going for us. He is banged up, but he will be good to go,” said assistant coach Dan Lydiate. “Everyone is raring to go.”

Wainwright is Wales’ joint leading carrier with hooker Dewi Lake (54) and he is fourth in the tournament rankings for both dominant contacts (11) and post-contact metres (72).

The Leicester-bound forward’s presence would be a boost for the meeting with a physical Italy side who are hunting three wins in the championship for the first time after beating Scotland in round one and England last weekend.

Fly-half Sam Costelow is still not training fully after the ankle injury suffered against Scotland in round three, but has not been ruled out.

Wales suffered a 27-17 defeat against Ireland despite a tenacious performance in which they made 240 tackles.

According to Opta, Dafydd Jenkins (82) and Alex Mann (75) top the Six Nations tackle chart.

Lydiate was 2012 player of the Six Nations for his chop-tackling defensive efforts when Wales won a Grand Slam by conceding just three tries and 58 points.

“We’d like to have the ball a bit more and be scoring points, but the boys put their bodies on the line for the jersey and you can’t ask for much more than that,” said the former Lions blind-side flanker.

“It’s a collision sport and there is no shying away from that. The boys are putting in some big shifts and there is a lot of unseen work that is creating a good vibe and feeling.

Wales have last 15 successive games in the Six Nations since their 2023 success against Italy.

After starting with heavy defeats to England and France, Lydiate is encouraged by the performances against Scotland and Ireland

“If we keep on the right trajectory then we will get to a place where the wins will look after themselves.

“We are miles apart from where we were at the start of the tournament but we can’t think that we have a couple of performances and the result will look after itself.

Martin O’Neill fears large ticket allocations for away fans at matches between Celtic and Rangers may be lost forever – and he is “saddened” by events that have led him to that conclusion.

Ugly scenes marred the aftermath of Celtic’s Scottish Cup quarter-final win on penalties at Ibrox, with spectators entering the pitch.

As of Monday, nine arrests had been made following Sunday’s encounter.

It was the first meeting of Rangers and Celtic since 2018 to have such a large away support – around 7,500.

In recent years, away allocations in the fixture had been 800, 2,500 or with no visiting support at all. Sunday’s derby had a larger away crowd in part because of the rules of the Scottish Cup, while other recent Old Firm cup ties have been semi-finals or finals at Hampden, with evenly-split crowds.

O’Neill added: “I thought the noise emanating from Ibrox, both last Sunday and the Sunday before that, even though we’d only 2,500 people, was something I have not heard for a long, long time.

“Maybe Celtic playing Liverpool way back in 2003, have I heard a noise emanating from a stadium like that.

“So, there’s something really magical about it and I’m really, obviously, quite saddened by the events. Saddened seems almost like you’re minimising or downplaying things.

Rangers had hosted Celtic the previous Sunday in their 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw, when away fans made up around 2,500 of the 50,000 crowd.

Danny Rohl’s side are due to visit the 60,000-seater Celtic Park once more in the league this season and when the last time the sides met at Celtic Park in January, approaching 2,400 Rangers supporters attended.

Celtic’s allocation on Sunday was akin to visiting crowds at Ibrox derbies during O’Neill’s first spell managing in Glasgow from 2000-05, when he won seven trophies with the club, including three league titles.

“I would love if there was a serious consideration to be looking at these particular things, what happened, what could have been avoided, but I honestly think that in terms of atmosphere, there was nothing like it,” added O’Neill.

“And I’m talking about going there to a hostile atmosphere at Ibrox, where you actually, perversely, get some sort of intoxicated joy from it. Joy might be too strong a word, but it really was amazing.

“People are going to look at it and say 7,000 people at Ibrox or Celtic Park just cannot be policed.

Graeme Souness, who managed Rangers from 1986-91, felt the increased amount of away fans “added to the atmosphere” but agreed with O’Neill.

“It is, in my opinion, the biggest derby in the world,” he told Talksport.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll see that again. What happened on Sunday will mean we won’t see away supporters in the stadium again, not in those numbers anyway. It takes so much away from the game.

“Although it wasn’t a great game, both of them generated an unbelievable atmosphere. I got my phone out before the game and filmed the scenes. It is the biggest, most passionate football match you will ever go to. But I think it will be a long time before we see that number of away supporters again.

“No matter what you think about Scottish football, Rangers and Celtic are monsters. They are not football clubs, they are institutions, and what makes them institutions is the passion that their supporters have for their clubs.

“And, as always, a small minority spoil it for everyone.”

Souness also added: “It’s a small element of supporters that react to defeat in a negative way.

Under-pressure England have made a solitary change to their line-up to face France in the final round of the Six Nations on Saturday with Ollie Chessum coming into the back row.

The versatile Chessum, 25, started the first three games of England’s campaign in the second row but will add weight, ball-carrying power and a useful line-out option as blind-side flanker.

With Tom Curry out with a calf injury sustained in the warm-up of their loss to Italy, Guy Pepper shifts to open-side.

England: Daly; Roebuck, Freeman, S Atkinson, Murley; F Smith, Spencer; Genge, George, Heyes, Itoje (capt), Coles, Chessum, Pepper, Earl

Ben Earl, who took on much of the ball-carrying against Italy, continues at number eight as part of a back row that has more heft than previous combinations selected by head coach Steve Borthwick.

A little over a fortnight ago, in the 42-21 loss to Ireland, he fielded Henry Pollock, alongside Curry and Earl in a trio that instead prioritised speed and breakdown work.

Elsewhere the side is unchanged, with Fin Smith continuing at fly-half, Seb Atkinson and Tommy Freeman in the centres and Alex Coles partnering captain Maro Itoje in the second row.

Underhill and Marcus Smith could win their 50th England caps off the bench.

England had earmarked this match as a potential title decider before the start of the Six Nations, but defeats by Scotland, Ireland and Italy have left them fifth in the table. Another loss would condemn them to the worst campaign in 27 years of the Six Nations.

“It’s a huge challenge under the lights in Paris against a very strong France side,” said head coach Steve Borthwick, who was backed by his Rugby Football Union boss on Sunday to turn around the team’s form.

“England versus France is one of the great rivalries in international rugby and we’re looking forward to the occasion.”

France, who will wear a special commemorative shirt to mark 120 years since the start of the teams’ rivalry, have won the past four meetings on home soil.

England have to go back to their 2016 Grand Slam-winning year for their last away success over France.

The hosts, level with Scotland on 16 points at the top of the table heading into the final round, will be clear on what they need to do to retain their Six Nations title come kick-off.