JONNY WILKINSON will not be released for a training session of England’s elite squad next week, his French club Racing Toulon said yesterday.

The England outhalf “will respect his contract and will be available for the first game of the Top 14 against Bayonne on August 13th”, Toulon said in a statement.

The England training session is due from August 8th-14th.

Backrow James Haskell and lock Tom Palmer, who play club rugby with Stade Francais, have also been called up by England manager Martin Johnson.

Haskell was involved in a row between club and national teams in March when the RFU refused to release him to play for his club during a break in the Six Nations championship.

Meanwhile, Wales and Scarlets winger Mark Jones has been forced to retire after failing to recover from a knee injury suffered on international duty last November.

The 30-year-old will now take on the role of skills coach at the Scarlets after medics confirmed his playing days had been ended by a third major knee injury.

Jones spent two years on the sidelines between 2003 and 2005 after requiring reconstructive surgery on both knees – but he returned to top-class rugby and helped Wales win the 2008 Grand Slam.

Jones will be joined on the Scarlets management team by Simon Easterby, who takes over as defence coach after he was also forced to retire with a knee injury.

Easterby, the former Ireland flanker, had moved into the role of player-coach last summer and never fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in December.

The two former Scarlets captains will join newly-appointed forwards coach Robin McBryde in working under director of rugby Nigel Davies.

Easterby joined the Scarlets in 1999 and he captained the team for five seasons until Jones took over last season. The 35-year-old is Ireland’s most capped flanker with 65 Test appearances.