Northampton fly-half Fin Smith is suffering with a calf strain that may put him out of England’s Six Nations opener against Wales on 7 February.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old withdrew from the Saints line-up to face Bordeaux-Begles on Sunday and is awaiting the results of a scan on the injury.<\/p>\n
“We’re still waiting to see how long that is from a scan point of view,” said Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably minimum two weeks, but with a muscle injury it’s hard to give a timeline beyond that.<\/p>\n
“It’s not months and months and he’s not going to be back this weekend, so somewhere in between that.”<\/p>\n
England take on Wales in three and a half weeks, with their Six Nations squad set to be named next week.<\/p>\n
After the opening round of action, England travel to Scotland on 14 February and then take on Ireland at Twickenham on 21 February before the Six Nations’ rest week.<\/p>\n
Smith came off the bench in the opening-round defeat by Ireland in last year’s competition and was promoted to the starting XV for the remaining four matches of England’s campaign.<\/p>\n
Steve Borthwick’s side finished second in a hugely encouraging campaign, and Smith won selection for the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia over the summer.<\/p>\n
However, while Smith endured a disappointing time with the Lions, unable to exert pressure on Finn Russell for a Test spot, George Ford impressed in England’s Tests against Argentina and the United States.<\/p>\n
Ford was preferred during the autumn, starting at 10 in victories over Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, while Smith, unable to offer Marcus Smith’s versatility, was restricted to a win over Fiji and the fringes of the matchday 23.<\/p>\n