Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell has suffered a fresh injury with England

England and Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell has suffered another hamstring injury that makes him a doubt for the rest of the season.

Mitchell has a hamstring injury During England’s Six Nations defeat by Ireland at Twickenham in FebruaryAnd two months later Saints returned to their home game with a Champions Cup defeat at Bath.

But while away for a three-day training camp with England ahead of summer internationals against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July, Mitchell pulled his other hamstring.

It is a blow to the title aspirations of love-leaders Northampton, who host Gloucester on Saturday before ending their campaign at Harlequins a week later, and to Steve Borthwick’s plans for a possible inaugural Nations Championship.

Saints director of rugby Phil Dawson admitted he was disappointed by the news and said Northampton intended to discuss with England staff how best to minimize the risk of such an injury.

“On Wednesday he was training with England and unfortunately he pulled his hamstring,” Dawson told BBC Radio Northampton.

“It’s disappointing and I’m sure there are other (directors of rugby) in the same situation. These things happen in sport. We’ve had a good conversation with England and we’ll discuss what we can do to mitigate if it happens again.

“I was comfortable in pre-camp and with only one injury, I don’t think I should be uncomfortable now with what happened, as long as what they said, happened. We look at the data provided, which is quite open.

“It’s not good to cry over spilled milk, we have to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Mitchell’s injury means Archie McParland is likely to be first-choice scrum-half for Northampton in the late-season play-offs as they look to repeat their 2024 title triumph.

“Archie had a stand out year,” added Dawson.