England centre Jonathan Joseph has admitted that he played part of the Rugby World Cup with only one third of his pectoral muscle attached to the bone.

The Bath star revealed that he felt something wrong in his chest during the 33-13 defeat against Australia, but played on for Stuart Lancaster's men.

He told AFP: "I felt something in my pec and wasn't too happy about it as I'd done the other pec before and it felt a little bit similar. When I got back to Bath, they had a little play with it. I had felt something in there during the Uruguay week but wasn't too concerned.

"Bath had it scanned and in fact I only had about a third of the muscle still attached. Although I could feel it against Australia and Uruguay, it wasn't too bad. I was aware of it, it was strapped but I managed to tackle all right.

"It was a World Cup and I was going to do everything I could to play. Obviously, I wasn't aware that there was only one third attached."

Joseph is expected to be fit for next year's Six Nations.