mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
Phil Dowson has confirmed that Alex Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury during Northampton’s 28-14 win against Gloucester on Saturday night.
Mitchell had to come off in the 21st minute, walking across DPD Stadium in the Franklin’s Gardens tunnel, with 20-year-old Jonny Weimann coming on for him.
Northampton refused to let injury derail them as they came back from 14-0 down to secure a bonus-point win against a Gloucester side who went into the Gallagher PREM weekend top of the table.
England will now wait to see if Mitchell can be available for Nations Championship home game Australia next weekend.
The 29-year-old has already been sidelined with hamstring injuries on three separate occasions during 2026.
When asked about Mitchell, Dowson said: “Mitch has injured his hamstring but I don’t know how badly.
“We have to be extremely careful with him and he knows his body.”
Northampton were also without Fin Smith and Archie McParland against the Cherry and Whites.
When asked for an update on the English duo, Dowson said: “Fin and Archie are both calves. Fin is probably not as bad as Arch, but it remains to be seen. I haven’t seen Arch move yet, while Fin has been doing something.”
Northampton rallied to score 28 unanswered points after trailing Gloucester 14-0 in the first half hour of the match.
Dowson said: “I thought Gloucester started really well. They had a ton of energy and momentum coming into the game and I thought they showed that.
“We were still a bit frustrated from last week (28-7 loss to Leicester) but what we did was fight hard and I thought we were excellent in that second quarter.
“We got back into the game just before half-time, great time to score, and we started to get a bit more momentum ourselves.
“We controlled possession and territory well in the second half and were able to capitalize on some of those opportunities.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “The second half was poor and I thought the Saints defense was outstanding and limited our chances.
“We weren’t accurate enough but credit the Saints because they did a great job in that second half and we couldn’t settle into the game to use our bench the way we wanted to.
“We missed an opportunity with that momentum in the first half to really give ourselves a chance to win today.”