Lawes worry for England

Editor

England are sweating over the fitness of another forward after it was confirmed that Courtney Lawes will have a scan on an injured knee.

The 27-year-old, who was set to start the Autumn Tests after both Maro Itoje and George Kruis were sidelined, has now become a doubt.

Following Saints’ 23-20 victory over Gloucester on Friday, Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder issued an update on lock Lawes.

“Courtney has a bad knee, he did it a couple of weeks ago and missed the Montpellier game with it. We thought it had improved and he played last week with no problem, but midweek in training it reacted so we’ll have to have a scan on it to see the extent of the injury,” he told Press Association Sport.

“I am not sure if he will be ready for the Autumn Internationals, fingers crossed there is not too much damage and he will be ready in a couple of weeks’ time.”

England will play South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia in the coming weeks, starting with a game against the Springboks on November 5.