Dane Coles has turned down the All Blacks captaincy as he decides to concentrate on his comeback performance
British and Irish Lions lock Courtney Lawes is living proof that being tall isn't always a good thing.
Suffering a back injury as the result of sleeping in a hotel bed that was too small for his 6ft 7in frame, Lawes is now all but certain to miss England's opening test against South Africa and is in doubt to face the All Blacks on November 11.
Lawes had returned to the UK on Saturday after a back spasm prevented him from taking full part in training in training camp in Portugal last week to receive specialist treatment on the unusual injury.
Eddie Jones said Lawes has responded positively to the treatment, but would only be able to take part in one training session on Thursday - when the England head coach names his squad.
Edie Jones has been dealt a fresh injury blow. Photo / Getty
"We really won't know until he comes in today. He came in injured from [Northampton's last] game," said Jones.
"He had a walk-through on Wednesday and realised it wasn't right. Our medical team got on to it straight away.
"He was investigated here, we couldn't get the required treatment here so had to send him back. At the moment it seems like it's had the required effect and we'll just wait and see how he comes in tonight.
"It's a lower back injury. He's had that for a while. He missed two games for Northampton. He came back and played a game but it hasn't really rectified itself."
Jones said if Lawes was ruled out it would represent a significant loss to his squad.
"He's a 60-capper, a Lions player, great ball carrier, a good defender. A big loss, so we've just got to pick up the slack," Jones added.
Eddie Jones looks on during the England training session held at Browns Sport and Leisure Club . Photo / Getty
"That's the great opportunity of these Test matches. If you're missing some players you've got good opportunities for other players to come through and build the depth of the squad and your resilience for the World Cup.
"He won't train today. We're hopeful he'll do some light training on Tuesday. Maybe he'll do some full training on Thursday and we'll make an assessment on whether he's right to go."
Meanwhile, the availability of Alex Lozowski remains unclear for the match against the Springboks, with no details yet about when his disciplinary hearing will be heard after he received a new citing for a high tackle on Ruaridh Jackson while playing the Champions Cup match against Glasgow. That came after the original decision not to cite him for the incident was reviewed.
"I don't know mate, I have no idea," said Jones. "We're not worrying about it. If he's available for selection someone will tell us. If he's not then he's not. He's back and will train today. I have no idea when his next disciplinary hearing is.
"Does anyone know? When you've got two sides that play in the same colour jersey, it's probably pretty hard to work out when the next tribunal is.
"All we're doing when we do finalise tomorrow – we have to pick the 25 tomorrow – we'll have an idea if he's available or not and go from there. I'm not wasting any sleep over it. Just wait and see."
The All Blacks will play England on November 11 in London.
