Northampton lock Courtney Lawes has become the latest forward to be ruled out of England's summer tour to South Africa due to a shin injury, his club boss Jim Mallinder has said.
The 23-year-old has been out of action since suffering a stress fracture in the RBS 6 Nations defeat to Wales, which capped an injury-hit tournament for the second row, after a knee injury caused him to miss England's opening two fixtures.
And Mallinder says the second row, who has 14 caps to his name, will not play a part in Northampton's Aviva Premiership title tilt nor England's three-Test trip to face the Springboks.
He told BBC Northampton: "We were hoping he might play some part this season but it's looking like he has not quite recovered enough from his shin injury, so it looks like he'll probably not play for the remainder of this season for Saints or for England.
"He is gutted, you want to be involved in the big games, that means semi-finals, if we get there, and finals and, of course, going on England tours.
"He has been a bit unfortunate, but what he has got to do is have a good off-season, make sure his body fully recovers, then train hard for us in pre-season and I am sure actually then he will come back fighting fit.
"He has got a lot of years to go has Courtney and we've got to look after him."
Lawes' Northampton team-mate Tom Wood had already been ruled out of the trip to South Africa after a recurrence of the foot injury that forced him to miss the Six Nations.
Leicester flanker Tom Croft will also miss out after suffering a neck injury in the Tigers' recent Premiership win at Harlequins.
