Johnson to face Gloucester after overturning one yellow card

Martin Johnson served up one bit of good news for Leicester yesterday when he won one of his two appeals against yellow cards.

The Leicester and England captain has been shown a total of three cards ­ which would normally result in an automatic one-match ban ­ this season. The first was against Worcester in the Powergen Cup last December, though that one was accepted by Johnson.

His second came for a technical infringement at Bath at the start of this month. A week later the Leicester captain was sent to the sin-bin against Bristol. It was these last two cards ­ both came in Zurich Premiership games ­ against which he appealed.

The three-man RFU disciplinary panel, chaired by former England international John Spencer, upheld his appeal against the Bath card, but the offence against Bristol stands. The verdict at the disciplinary hearing in Leeds last night means Johnson will be free to face Gloucester in Saturday's Powergen Cup semi-final at Northampton. If Johnson had failed to convince the panel that he had a case and had lost both appeals, then he would have been out of the cup tie.

Leicester's England flanker Neil Back is extremely doubtful for the semi-final after suffering a calf injury against Wales on Saturday. Back is also doubtful for England's match against Italy at Twickenham the following weekend. Leicester are already without Lewis Moody, possibly for the rest of the season as he tries to sort out a long-standing shoulder injury which was operated on at the weekend.

The other two England casualties, Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson, however, are both expected to be fit to turn out for their clubs ­ Newcastle and Sale respectively ­ at the weekend.

There was a mixed bag of news from Gloucester yesterday. The upbeat tidings were that the loose-head prop Trevor Woodman, who has been battling to recover from a neck injury for the last three months, is expected to be on the bench against Leicester. That should please the England head coach, Clive Woodward, as well as Gloucester's director of rugby, Nigel Melville, because England have been hard-pushed to find high-quality props as they, too, have a front-row injury crisis.

What will not have pleased either Woodward or Melville is the news on Phil Vickery, the Gloucester and England tighthead prop. Vickery's persistent back injury means thatthe Gloucester captain is out of the semi-final and looks certain to miss the remainder of England's Six Nations campaign.

With the centre Robert Todd having to appear before a disciplinary committee hearing this evening after a reckless tackle during the match against Saracens, Melville may be forced to recall Chris Catling from First Division Worcester, where he is on loan.

Bath will be without the scrum-half Gareth Cooper and back row Gavin Thomas for the key Zurich Premiership game against Saracens on Saturday because of call-ups for Wales.