Dowson provides update on Mitchell and McParland after England setback

Northampton Saints boss Phil Dowson hopes that England and Lions scrum-half Alex Mitchell will be fit for the start of their Gallagher PREM title defence against Newcastle Red Bulls later this month.

Mitchell is back in training after he missed England’s final Nations Championship clash with Argentina having picked up an injury in their 73-8 thrashing of Fiji at Everton’s Bramley Dock stadium in July.

He has been blighted by hamstring injuries over the last year, but Dowson says he is back in training and confident he will be ready for the clash with the Red Bulls on September 25.

“He’s been training really well, and I think he’s desperate to get stuck into it. It will have been disappointing to miss the summer. I feel like he had a great opportunity in the final and was fantastic considering he hasn’t played.

“We want to get some consistency with him, in the training level, and make sure we keep him on the pitch as much as possible. It’s a case of managing him. It’s the hamstring that he did in the Six Nations, and so there’s some soft tissue there.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Northampton

11:45

25 Sep 26

Newcastle

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“We’ll obviously put some processes into place to try and mitigate those risks, but every single player is open to injury, and he won’t be the first or last to have to miss really important games,” Dowson told RugbyPass.

Saints had Alex Coles, Manny Iyogun, Henry Pollock, Fin Smith and Tommy Freeman away at a three-day England training camp at Pennyhill Park this week, but Archie McParland was forced to pull out at the last minute through illness.

Dowson said, however, that it’s not a minor setback for McParland, who was ruled out of the summer Tests with a serious leg injury he suffered in the PREM final win over Exeter Chiefs that needed 38 stitches.

“He’s on the mend. We had a bit of illness in the camp, so we’re trying to get that nip that in the bud, and we’re trying to look after those players before the onslaught of the season.

“So very disappointing for Archie, but I’m hopeful and fairly confident he’ll get more opportunities in that space,” added Dowson.