Saturday 25 October 2014 20:48, UK
Luther Burrell is a doubt for England’s autumn internationals after sustaining a hand injury during Northampton's 34-6 victory over the Ospreys on Saturday in the Champions Cup.
The centre left the field holding his right hand in the 43rd minute at Franklin's Gardens and he will require an X-ray to assess the extent of the damage.
England face New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Australia at Twickenham during November and Northampton's director of rugby Jim Mallinder admits he is concerned.
Luther has banged his hand. It's very sore and he's struggling to grip.
Mallinder said: "Luther has banged his hand. It's very sore and he's struggling to grip. He'll have to go for an X-ray on that.
"He gave it a chance and put some tape on at half-time. Fingers crossed there's no permanent damage.
"But it could be anything – it was a bone in his hand."
During the match George North plundered four tries for the first time in his career and the winger admitted: "We knew that if we came out from one to 15 and beat our opposite man, we'd come away with the win.
"I was happy with my performance and the four tries finished it off nicely. It wasn't a bad day in the office.
"This performance is definitely up there, for me personally and for the team.
"We didn't get the result we needed at Racing Metro last weekend. We knew we had to get on the front foot and a lot of boys stepped up against the Ospreys."
And Mallinder was also pleased with his players: "This win puts us back on track after not even getting a bonus point last week.
"We could have been out of sight by half-time if we'd taken a couple more of those chances we created.
"It usually goes down to the wire in Europe and it will probably be the same this season."
Ospreys forwards’ coach Chris Gibbes admitted the Welsh visitors were beaten by the better side: "We were inaccurate at times and we allowed them to camp in our half. We knew they were going to be a threat.
"We knew we had to be good from minute one to 80 – but we weren't."
