SAINTS prop Alex Walmsley will make his long-awaited England debut against Lebanon on Saturday.

England boss Wayne Bennett confirmed that the 27-year-old front rower, who missed last Friday's World Cup opening match in Melbourne after succumbing to a virus, will be in the 17 for this weekend.

It will hopefully be a case of third time lucky after Walmsley was one of the unlucky ones who missed out on selection for the mid-season international against Samoa.

And there will be plenty of attention on the powerful front rower after his blockbusting stint off the bench in the warm-up against Australia's Affiliated States.

England are now in camp in Sydney and Walmsley took part in a full training session in sweltering heat at South Sydney's Redfern Oval.

"He'll play, he's good this morning," said Bennett. "He's doing it a bit tough over there in the physical department at the moment but he'll be fine.

"Regardless of which other players I pick, he'll definitely be in the team as he should have been there on Friday but he wasn't up to it."

Sam Burgess, who suffered knee medial ligament damage during Friday's 18-4 defeat by the Kangaroos, will sit out both remaining group games, against Lebanon and France.

Bennett expects him to be back for a potential semi-final against New Zealand in Auckland on November 25 and has not yet ruled him out of the quarter-finals.

"That's what we're aiming for," Bennett said. "He's not too bad, it's not as serious as it could have been.

"We're looking to have him back for the quarters at best, if not the next game after that."

Walmsley will take the place of Burgess but Bennett is likely to keep any further changes to a minimum after being encouraged by Friday's performance.

"I'm not sure yet," he said. "I'll tell the team. They'll know in the 24 hours what I'm doing, so we might see a few minor changes."

Bennett left out three players for the mid-season Test against Samoa in Sydney, after they had made the 12,000-mile journey from England, but hopes to give everybody a run-out before the knock-out stages.

"That's my intention but they know where they stand," he said. "I can't promise them that, but that's what I want to do.

"It would be nice for them but our job is to get results."

England are facing a potential banana skin against a Robbie Farah-captained Lebanon, who triumphed 29-18 against France in their opening game in Canberra on Sunday, a game Bennett has yet to catch up on.

Asked what he thought of the Cedars' victory, Bennett said: "I've no idea mate, I haven't seen the game.

"Of course Robbie Farah is a good player but I haven't seen him with Lebanon as my priority right now is getting these boys right."