England and Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell has suffered another hamstring injury which has left him doubtful for the remainder of the season, director of rugby Phil Dowson has confirmed.
Mitchell injured a hamstring during England’s Six Nations defeat to Ireland at Twickenham in February, and made his domestic return to action in Saints’ Champions Cup defeat at Bath two months later.
But while away with England for a three-day training camp before the summer internationals against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July, Mitchell pulled his other hamstring.
It is a blow to the title aspirations of Prem leaders Northampton, who host Gloucester on Saturday before concluding their campaign at Harlequins a week later, and potentially to the plans of Steve Borthwick for the inaugural Nations Championship.
Dowson admitted to feeling frustrated by the untimely news and said Northampton intended to hold talks with England staff about how best the risk of such injuries can be minimised.
“He was training with England on Wednesday and unfortunately he has pulled his hamstring,” Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton.
“It is frustrating and I am sure there are other DORs (directors of rugby) in the same situation. These things happen in sport. We have good dialogue with England and we will be having conversations around what we can do to mitigate it happening again.
“I was comfortable pre-camp and just because there is now an injury, I don’t think I should be uncomfortable now with what went on, as long as what they said happened, happened. We look at the data provided and which is pretty open.
“There is no good crying over spilt milk, we have to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Mitchell’s injury means Archie McParland will most likely be the first-choice scrum-half for Northampton heading into the end of season play-offs, as they look to repeat their 2024 title win.
“Archie has had a stand-out year,” Dowson added.
