All options are still open for Maro Itoje’s summer schedule, with England’s head of performance Phil Morrow saying a final decision on the captain will be taken in a fortnight’s time.
Itoje is resting at home rather than taking part in a three-day England get-together this week and made a pre-agreed early exit from a training camp in May.
The 31-year-old has played more than 30 matches in each of the past two seasons, breaching the recommended limit of 2,400 match minutes in 2023-24 and narrowly avoiding doing so in 2024-25.
After leading the British and Irish Lions to a series victory over Australia last summer, his arrival at England’s Six Nations training camp earlier this year was delayed as he attended his mother’s funeral.
England are contemplating resting Itoje for part, or the entirety, of a demanding summer leg of the Nations Championship that begins against South Africa in Johannesburg on 4 July, before matches against Fiji in Liverpool and Argentina in Santiago del Estero on the following two weekends.
“We will make a final decision over the next couple of weeks,” said Morrow, who worked with Itoje in his previous role as performance director at Saracens.
“Everything’s still on the table at the moment.
“There’s a couple of weeks of the season left, there’s some people in his position playing games still, so all these things have to be factored in, because it’s not black and white, as often it’s deemed to be.”
Leicester pair George Martin and Ollie Chessum, Northampton’s Alex Coles and Bath’s Charlie Ewels are among those taking part in the Prem semi-finals this weekend.
England plan to announce their Nations Championship squad a few days after the final on 20 June.
Harlequins’ Chandler Cunningham-South, another of England’s second row options, is currently sidelined with a calf injury, which Morrow described as “a bit more complicated”.
However, first-choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell could still make the summer tour after a hamstring strain suffered on England duty ruled him out of the remainder of Northampton’s domestic campaign.
“He’s in rehab at the minute and it is progressing dead well,” said Morrow.
“We’ll see what the next couple of weeks brings for him. There’s a possibility [he could tour].”
England’s concerns at loose-head prop, where they have already lost Fin Baxter to a recurring foot issue and are likely to be without Sale’s Bevan Rodd, have eased with Bristol’s Ellis Genge set to return from a calf strain in time to face the Springboks.
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