Courtney Lawes has endured a luckless 2012 © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Courtney Lawes

Teams: England | Northampton Saints

England and Northampton lock Courtney Lawes will play no further part for club or country this season after being ruled out of the summer tour to South Africa due to a shin injury.

Lawes, 23, has been out of action since suffering a stress fracture in the Six Nations defeat to Wales, which capped an injury-hit tournament for the second row, after a knee injury caused him to miss England's opening two fixtures.

Northampton coach Jim Mallinder now says Lawes will sit out Northampton's Premiership title tilt and England's three-Test trip to face the Springboks.

"We were hoping he might play some part this season but it's looking like he has not quite recovered enough from his shin injury, so it looks like he'll probably not play for the remainder of this season for Saints or for England," Mallinder told BBC Northampton.

"He is gutted, you want to be involved in the big games, that means semi-finals, if we get there, and finals and, of course, going on England tours.

"He has been a bit unfortunate, but what he has got to do is have a good off-season, make sure his body fully recovers, then train hard for us in pre-season and I am sure actually then he will come back fighting fit. He has got a lot of years to go has Courtney and we've got to look after him."

Lawes' Northampton team-mate Tom Wood had already been ruled out of the trip to South Africa after a recurrence of the foot injury that forced him to miss the Six Nations.

Leicester flanker Tom Croft will also miss out after suffering a neck injury in the Tigers' recent Premiership win at Harlequins.