Alex Mitchell will miss the end of Northampton Saints’ season having suffered a hamstring injury in England training last week.
The Times understands that Sale Sharks flanker Tom Curry also felt symptoms of a concussion, but is now free of those issues and is going through the return-to-play protocols. He should be fit to face Bristol Bears on the final day of the season on June 6.
It is so far unclear whether the damage the Northampton scrum half Mitchell, 29, has done will rule him out of England’s Nations Championship Tests in July. England face South Africa on July 4, then Fiji and Argentina on the following Saturdays, so Mitchell has a month or so to recover.
However, it is understood that while the injury isn’t catastrophic, it will keep him out for the rest of the domestic season, which is a huge blow to Northampton’s Gallagher Prem title chances. The Saints are top of the table and are attempting to win a second league title in three years.
Dowson wants to speak with Borthwick, pictured, to discuss how to avoid injuries on international duty affecting clubsThe Times PHOTOGRTAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Confirming the injury, Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, said: “He’s pulled it and he’s done a decent job on it. Matt Lee, our head medic, sent me the picture. It’s going to be a push to get him any rugby for us for the rest of the season. It is frustrating and I think every director of rugby would say that and Steve [Borthwick, the England head coach] would say that. He’d say that when they get injured on club time going into internationals. It’s the nature of the beast. These things happen. My question would be what can we learn from it and how can we mitigate the risks of it happening again?”
Dowson now wants to gather the Prem directors of rugby to talk to Borthwick and the head of performance, Phil Morrow, about how to stop these avoidable injuries affecting clubs.
“How do we mitigate the risks? What does the training look like? Did he get the training he wanted? What do the metrics look like?” Dowson asked. “I don’t think it was a ludicrous session in terms of volume. You’ve got to be careful of saying, ‘This session was hard or this session wasn’t’. It’s unfortunate. Maybe there are things we can do better, but I’m not going to start casting aspersions until I’ve spoken to Phil Morrow and the rest of the medical team to find out what their thoughts are as well in person. We’ll talk directly to the medics and Morrow and Steve and work out if anything can be done slightly differently in the future.”
McParland has shown plenty of promise but is new to the sceneCOLORSPORT/Ashley Western/Shutterstock
Northampton will now have to rely on two inexperienced No9s for the rest of their campaign.
Archie McParland, 21, has been the find of their season and was included in the senior England squad last week. He has started several games ahead of Mitchell this year, but is still very green, having played just 32 Prem matches in his Saints career so far. Northampton have the 20-year-old Jonny Weimann and Tom James, 32, fit in reserve.
Asked about McParland, Dowson said: “He’s been very good recently. I’m pretty happy with where Archie is at from an experience point of view. Tom James has played a ton of rugby for us and he’s back fit. And we’ve got England’s Under-20 scrum half Jonny Weimann, who is also exceptional and has had a good training week. It’s disappointing to lose Mitch. No doubt. He’s been very, very good, but we focus now on what we do have and what they’re going to bring to the table. We want to make sure in these knockout games they’re going to go for their decisions and play right on the edge.”
Mitchell’s fresh injury occurred during England training last week. Borthwick gathered 42 players for a three-day camp last Monday to Wednesday, with two days of normal training. Mitchell pulled his hamstring in a team session, and after another Curry felt symptoms of a head injury.
This is Mitchell’s second hamstring injury of the season, and he has now pulled the muscle in both legs. He had a heavy workload in 2024-25 when he ended the year appearing in every British & Irish Lions match-day squad on their tour of Australia. Mitchell did not appear off the bench in the second Test against the Wallabies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which the Lions won 29-26, but he played minutes in all nine of the other matches on the trip. That meant he played 31 matches last year, more than the recommended season limit for Prem players of 30.
This season, Mitchell has played in 22 games for club and country, but missed a chunk of time owing to his first hamstring issue of the campaign in February.
He suffered that injury in the 42-21 Six Nations loss to Ireland, lasting only 25 minutes at Twickenham. That meant he missed the defeats to Italy and France, and he was out for six weeks of matches, returning for the Champions Cup quarter-final that the Saints lost 43-41 to Bath.
Borthwick picked five scrum halves for his most recent squad, including Mitchell and McParland, as well as Bath’s Ben Spencer, who missed most of the training as he has been nursing a shoulder issue, Saracens’ Charlie Bracken and Leicester Tigers’ Jack van Poortvliet.