Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Alex Mitchell remains a doubt for the Nations Championship in July after sustaining a pulled hamstring during England’s training camp last week.
Northampton director of rugby Phil Dawson has revealed that Mitchell will miss the rest of the club’s season even if Gallagher’s Love leaders reach the Twickenham final on June 20.
The love showpiece takes place two weeks before England face world champions South Africa in Johannesburg, while the summer tour ends against Fiji in Liverpool and Argentina in Buenos Aires.
England head coach Steve Borthwick now faces the prospect of being without his British and Irish Lions scrum-half for all or some of the Tests.
Northampton Saints’ Alex Mitchell celebrates scoring his side’s third try against Harlequins
Please use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
England captain Maro Itoje has thrown his support behind Steve Borthwick, insisting faith remains in the squad.
“He pulled it off and he did a decent job on it,” Dawson said. “It’s going to be a push to get him any rugby for us for the rest of the season.
“It’s disappointing and every manager of rugby will say that. Steve (Borthwick) will say when people get injured at club time and they want to go into the international game. It’s the nature of the animal. These things happen.”
Please use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky Sports’ James Cole brings you the latest on England’s Nations Championship training squad, with the notable inclusion of Benhard Janse van Rensburg.
Mitchell, the only Lions player in Australia’s every matchday squad last summer, was forced to sit out the final two rounds of the Six Nations after pulling another hamstring.
Dawson plans to discuss his response to Mitchell’s injury with Borthwick and England head of performance Phil Morrow, although he added that “we have to make sure we don’t go looking for shadows”.
“How can we reduce risk?” Dawson said. “What does the training look like? Did he get the training he wanted? What do the metrics look like?
Please use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
James Cole explains why the RFU has backed current England head coach Steve Borthwick to stay on after a ‘challenging’ Six Nations review.
“I don’t think it was a ridiculous session in terms of volume. You have to be careful about saying ‘this session was hard or this session wasn’t’. It’s unfortunate.
“There are probably things we can do better, but I won’t start speculating until I talk to Phil Morrow and the rest of the medical team to find out what their thoughts are.
“We’ll be talking directly with the doctors and Morrow and Steve and working out if something can be done a little bit differently in the future.”
