Six Nations 2018: Courtney Lawes and Nathan Hughes to miss summer tour of South Africa due to knee injuries

Forwards will have surgery later this week and miss up to four months, ruling them out of the rest of the season

Nathan Hughes suffered a knee injury that will keep him out of this week's clash with Ireland (Getty)

England have suffered a double injury blow with the news that both Courtney Lawes and Nathan Hughes will miss the summer tour of South Africa after due to the need for surgery on the knee injuries they sustained in last weekend’s Six Nations defeat by France.

Wasps No 8 Hughes was injured in the 24th minute of Saturday’s loss at the Stade de France and was forced off the field in obvious pain after teammate Joe Launchbury and French fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc were cleaned out of a ruck and landed on his left leg.

It is the second serious injury that the 26-year-old has suffered this season, having missed two months after he injured the same knee while playing for Wasps last December, and comes as a huge blow for England head coach Eddie Jones who is already without first-choice No 8 Billy Vunipola due to a fractured arm.

Hughes is expected to miss 12 weeks, which will not only see him miss this weekend’s final Six Nations match against Ireland along with the rest of the domestic season, but also England’s three-Test tour of South Africa in June.

Lawes will also miss the summer tour and is set to be sidelined for slightly longer than Hughes, with England expecting his rehabilitation to last up to 14 weeks once he undergoes surgery this week. The second-row, who featured on the British and Irish Lions tour last summer, has been deployed at blindside flanker this season with Maro Itoje and Joe Launchbury playing at lock, and it further deepens England’s back-row concerns given they are running out of experienced Test options.

Sam Underhill is already sidelined with an injured toe and has not been included in the squad that will welcome Ireland to Twickenham this Saturday, and while Jones can call on the experienced flanker duo of James Haskell and Chris Robshaw, he will need to hope that Exeter Chiefs pair Sam Simmonds and Don Armand – who hold a combined seven international caps – hit the ground running against the already-crowned Six Nations champions.

England are also without Ben Youngs due to a similar knee injury, although the Leicester Tigers scrum-half did not require surgery on his injured medial collateral ligament in his left knee and could return to action in April in time to regain his fitness for the South Africa tour.

Courtney Lawes will miss around 14 weeks after injuring a ligament in his knee (Getty)

In terms of this weekend’s match, England are still waiting on captain Dylan Hartley and wing Elliot Daly, with the pair struggling with calf and foot injuries respectively. Jones will cut his squad to 25 players later on Wednesday once he gets a full idea of whether they will be fit to face the Irish, with England looking to avoid losing three Six Nations matches for the first time in 12 years.