Six Nations news: England camp hit by tragedy and lose key player for Scotland match | Rugby | Sport

England scrum-half Alex Mitchell has been ruled out of the Red Rose’s Six Nations match against Scotland this Saturday. Mitchell has a knee injury that will be assessed next week.

Harry Randall has been moved up from the A squad to cover for Danny Care and Ben Spencer at scrum-half. It is a setback for Steve Borthwick given Mitchell started in both wins over Italy and Wales.

However, there is some good news as Bath centre Ollie Lawrence is fully fit again after getting over a hip injury. He’ll be joining Manu Tuilagi, who is also fit and back in the squad.

However, Marcus Smith, the fly-half, is unlikely to be ready for the weekend. He’s still recovering from a calf problem that kept him out of the first two games.

George Martin, the lock from Leicester, is fully fit and could play against Scotland. But without Mitchell, Borthwick doesn’t have his first-choice No. 9.

Mitchell, who’s 26 and from Northampton, wasn’t in Borthwick’s original World Cup squad. But he was brought in when Jack van Poortvliet hurt his ankle in a warm-up game.

Mitchell proved himself by starting big knockout games against Fiji and South Africa, ahead of Care and Ben Youngs.

It appears Care will start at Murrayfield, with Spencer, who hasn’t been capped since 2019, on the bench.