Lawes kept in squad

ENGLAND MANAGER Martin Johnson revealed yesterday that Courtney Lawes could be back in action before the end of the Six Nations.

Lawes, 21, suffered a knee ligament injury in Northampton’s Premiership defeat at Leicester last weekend and his club feared he would be sidelined for three months.

But Johnson has kept Lawes in his 33-man elite squad and is hopeful both he and flanker Tom Croft, who is recovering from a fractured shoulder, will feature in the campaign.

“Tom and Courtney both have a chance of playing rugby by the end of the tournament,” Johnson said.

“Tom is making good progress with the Leicester medics and our guys and it is the same with Courtney, so they are both week to week and hopefully they will be fitter sooner rather than later and make the end of the tournament.”

ENGLAND ELITE SQUAD: Forwards — G Chuter (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), P Doran-Jones (Gloucester), N Easter (Harlequins), H Fourie (Leeds), D Hartley (Northampton), J Haskell (Stade Francais), C Lawes (Northampton), L Moody (Bath), T Palmer (Stade Francais), T Payne (Wasps), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale), S Thompson (Leeds), D Wilson (Bath), J Worsley (Wasps). Backs — D Armitage (London Irish), C Ashton (Northampton), M Banahan (Bath), D Care (Harlequins), M Cueto (Sale), T Flood (Leicester), R Flutey (Wasps), B Foden (Northampton), S Hape (Bath), C Hodgson (Sale), J Simpson (Wasps), D Strettle (Saracens), M Tindall (Gloucester), J Wilkinson (Toulon), B Youngs (Leicester).