England will wait to see how the Gallagher Prem knockout phase unfolds before making a call on whether to rest Maro Itoje for their July tour.
Itoje could be stood down for the Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina amid ongoing conversations between England’s captain, head coach Steve Borthwick and head of performance Phil Morrow.
Any decision to give Itoje the summer off would be in recognition of the demands of a year in which he led the British and Irish Lions to a series victory over Australia, played in the autumn and Six Nations campaigns and mourned the death of his mother.
The 31-year-old has also completed more Test minutes than any other player in the game since making his debut in 2016.
However, before a decision is made, the weekend’s Prem play-offs and the Allianz Stadium final a week later will be monitored to see if Itoje’s fellow locks Alex Coles, Ollie Chessum, George Martin and Charlie Ewels come through unscathed.
If injury misfortune strikes in the engine room, any plans made by Borthwick for the opener against South Africa in Johannesburg on July 4 may have to be revised.
“Maro’s personal situation this year has been well documented,” said Morrow, speaking at England’s Surrey base after Itoje had been omitted from a 26-man training squad that is preparing for a non-cap international against France on Friday week.
“If you take Maro’s last 12 months, he has been captain of the Lions tour, there has been his personal life and the general fact that he plays a decent amount of rugby.
“We always treat players on an individual basis, so this week in particular we thought it was best that Maro stayed at home, spent some time with his family and just rested and recuperated.
“There are two weeks of the Premiership season left so we’ll see what the next two weeks bring and then Steve will pick the final squad.
“We make individual decisions on players in terms of what’s best for them, not just for next year but looking further ahead.”
Morrow believes that England players would benefit from the type of sabbaticals granted to senior All Blacks such as Dan Carter, Ardie Savea and Scott Barrett, who are given either time off from the game or allowed to pause their international career and sign for an overseas club on a short-term basis.
“Do I think it is a good idea?” Morrow said. “Probably. New Zealand have used it well in terms of giving people a break and then allowing them to come back fresh.
“It’s very different in the northern hemisphere compared to the southern hemisphere in terms of the season structure and how it works and who pays people. It’s a bit more complicated.
“In principle it would be great for someone to take six months off and get their body right – but who pays for the sabbatical? That’s always the challenge when it comes to the payment structure.”
Morrow revealed that Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Alex Mitchell are on course to recover from their injuries in time to face the Springboks.
