{"id":27893,"date":"2024-02-26T23:36:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T20:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/27893\/england-handed-injury-boost-as\/"},"modified":"2024-02-26T23:36:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T20:36:26","slug":"england-handed-injury-boost-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=27893","title":{"rendered":"England handed injury boost as Smith, Mitchell near return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>England handed injury boost as Smith, Mitchell near return\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Tom Hamilton, lead writer<span class=\"timestamp \">February 26, 2024, 6:00 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>\u2022 Joined ESPN in 2011<br \/>\u2022 Covered two Olympic Games, two <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/rugby\/\"   title=\"Rugby\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Rugby<\/a> World Cups and two British and Irish Lions tours<br \/>\u2022 Former rugby editor, then senior editor in 2018<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Marcus Smith was out with a calf injury. <cite>Adam Davy\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>England are optimistic Marcus Smith will be back in the game for their Six Nations clash against Ireland on March 9 and hope Alex Mitchell will still play a part in this year&#39;s championship.<\/p>\n<p>England suffered their first Championship defeat of this year against Scotland on Saturday but will be boosted by news of injuries to their two half-backs.<\/p>\n<p>Smith has played no part so far this year after limping out of training with a calf injury days before England&#39;s opening match against Italy.  George Ford started all three competitions in his place, with Fin Smith as his deputy.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#39;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/England-handed-injury-boost-as-Smith-Mitchell-near-return.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/1708979785_99_England-handed-injury-boost-as-Smith-Mitchell-near-return.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Meanwhile, Mitchell started England&#39;s first two matches against Italy and Wales, but missed the defeat against Scotland with a knee injury.  Danny Care started at Murrayfield with Ben Spencer among the substitutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very hopeful that Marcus will be available for selection, for this latter part of the tournament,\u201d England head coach Steve Borthwick said.  &#8220;We also had some positive news regarding Alex Mitchell&#39;s injury, so hopefully he will feature in the latter part of the tournament as well. Whether it&#39;s the next game or the last, I&#39;m not sure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alex will come on Wednesday and continue his rehabilitation. We&#39;ll see where he is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>England face a tough test against Ireland, who are two wins away from completing a second consecutive Grand Slam after enjoying comfortable victories over France, Italy and Wales in their opening three matches .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England handed injury boost as Smith, Mitchell near return\u060c Tom Hamilton, lead writerFebruary 26, 2024, 6:00 p.m. Close \u2022 Joined ESPN in 2011\u2022 Covered two Olympic Games, two Rugby World Cups and two British and Irish Lions tours\u2022 Former rugby editor, then senior editor in 2018 Marcus Smith was out with a calf injury. Adam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[972,666,4079,1014,1393,625,871],"class_list":["post-27893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-boost","tag-england","tag-handed","tag-injury","tag-mitchell","tag-return","tag-smith"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27895,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27893\/revisions\/27895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}