FRANCE WINGER Vincent Clerc will be out for up to nine months after damaging knee ligaments playing for Toulouse on Saturday, said club coach Guy Noves.

Clerc left the pitch on a stretcher 65 minutes into the French championship match at home to Clermont, who won 23-11.

Tests showed he needed surgery on torn cruciate ligaments in his left knee, Noves said.

The injury means Clerc will miss the Heineken European Cup semi-final against London Irish at Twickenham next Saturday and the remainder of the French championship.

The 26-year-old, who has scored 20 tries in 33 internationals, will also miss France's two-Test tour of Australia in June and July and almost certainly the matches against Australia and Argentina in November.

London Irish warmed up for the semi-final at Twickenham next Saturday by denting Harlequins' English Premiership play-off hopes.

Irish prevailed 13-6 - Topsy Ojo scored the game's solitary try - and their forwards coach Toby Booth said: "We wanted it to be a physical game. Quins play with a lot of physicality at the breakdown, and that has given us all our contact skills for the Heineken semi-final."

New England manager Martin Johnson has admitted he will live or die by results on the pitch. The 38-year-old this week embarked on a three-year mission to restore his side to the international game's pinnacle.

However, having seen predecessor Brian Ashton lose his job despite inspiring England to last year's World Cup final, he knows what happens on the pitch will determine his own future.

Johnson said: "There is no guarantee in anything. You have got to do a job. You are in the most responsible job in English rugby and you have got to produce.

"Sport is about winning and losing and you want to win. There is an expectation on this England team at any time to be successful, and that has only got bigger in the last 20 years since I have been around in the senior game."