(Reuters) – England and Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes will not join up with Eddie Jones’ squad for their training camp in Jersey next week as he continues to work through his return to play protocols, the Rugby Football Union said on Friday.
The 33-year-old, who captained England in all three summer tests against Australia, took a blow to the head during Northampton’s defeat to Leicester Tigers in the Premiership on Sept. 24 in his only appearance of the season so far.
Lawes missed the first two rounds of this year’s Six Nations due to a concussion suffered on club duty in January.
World Rugby changed its Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) protocols from July 1 which now require that elite players with concussion symptoms avoid playing for at least 12 days.
London Irish flanker Tom Pearson has been called up as cover and will meet up with the 36-man squad on Monday for the five-day camp.
England face Argentina on Nov. 6 and Japan on Nov. 12 before two heavyweight clashes against New Zealand and South Africa on consecutive Saturdays after that.
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru)
