Saints star Mitchell to miss remainder of Guinness Six Nations due to injury
England boss Steve Borthwick has confirmed that Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell will miss the remainder of the Guinness Six Nations due to a hamstring injury.
Mitchell was forced off during the first half of last weekend’s loss to Ireland at Allianz Stadium.
And subsequent scans have shown that the injury is severe enough to keep him out of the trip to Italy on March 7 and the game in France on March 14.
Borthwick said: “Alex Mitchell left the field with a hamstring injury on Saturday and he’s subsequently been scanned and seen the relevant specialists.
"Unfortunately he's going to be out for a number of weeks, which means he won’t feature for us in the remainder of this championship.”
Saints will now be hoping for the best as they continue to fight on all fronts this season.
Phil Dowson’s men are currently in PREM Rugby Cup action but will be returning to the Gallagher PREM with a home game against Newcastle Red Bulls on March 21.
They then face Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on March 28 before resuming their European campaign with a match against Castres Olympique at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on April 3.
If Mitchell is unable to feature in those matches, it would be a huge miss for Saints, though Archie McParland has been in fine form of late and Tom James and Jonny Weimann have also shown their class in Saints colours.
As for Saints full-back George Furbank, who has yet to feature during this year’s Six Nations, Borthwick has confirmed that he will play for Saints in the PREM Rugby Cup game against Saracens at the Gardens on Saturday.
"George Furbank is not with us,” Borthwick said. “He’s with Northampton this week so he will play for his club side this weekend.
"We’ve got a number of players who started the week at their clubs, training with us in the latter part of the week and will return to their clubs for game time this weekend.”