Alex Mitchell to miss England’s entire autumn campaign — The Guardian

England scrum-half Alex Mitchell will miss the entire autumn campaign of the England rugby team due to another hamstring injury. He will not play in the Test matches against Australia, Japan and New Zealand, nor in the classification match of the Nations Championship final weekend.

As The Guardian reports, Mitchell was already set to miss the match against Australia this coming Sunday. A scan conducted on Monday confirmed that the rugby player will be sidelined until the end of the autumn series of matches.

Replacement at scrum-half

Jack van Poortvliet is expected to start against Australia. Ben Spencer and Harry Randall are competing for a place among the substitutes. For Mitchell, this injury is his fourth hamstring problem since the beginning of the year.

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He previously sustained similar injuries during the Six Nations, at England’s May training camp and in the summer Test match against Fiji. When Mitchell was fit, he was considered England’s first-choice number nine.

Smith still has to pass a test

Meanwhile, fly-half Fin Smith is due to undergo a decisive training session on Wednesday to confirm his fitness for the match against Australia. The 24-year-old Northampton player injured his calf in the derby against Leicester last month.

On Monday, Smith completed a running session at the national team base, while on Tuesday he worked on an adjusted programme and missed most of the training session. If he is not ready, George Ford and Marcus Smith are the alternatives at number 10. Fin Smith started in that position in England’s last five Test matches.