Courtney Lawes ready to lead England against Wales after head injury all-clear

Courtney Lawes has described the recent injury problems that left him with persistent headaches and affected vision caused by “headrush”, having been restored to the England captaincy for Saturday’s key Six Nations clash against Wales.

Lawes has been cleared to make his first appearance in six weeks at Twickenham this weekend, having been sidelined with a head injury since Northampton’s European Cup defeat by Ulster on 16 January. After arriving into camp with England later that month Lawes had a scan and visited a specialist who identified that the problem was with his vestibular system, or in his own words, “the connection between your eyes, ears and neck”, which had been “rattled”.

Jones believes Lawes will hit the ground running against Wales, describing his captain as someone who “tends to play pretty well fresh on to the paddock” and the Northampton loose forward, renowned for his tough tackling, is adamant he has no concerns over jumping back in at the deep end.

Lawes – who was cleared to return to full training last Friday – painted a candid picture of his symptoms over the past month and a half, however. “I guess pretty much the day after [the Ulster match] I had headaches which didn’t go away for a little while,” said the 33-year-old. “I also had headrush-like symptoms. It was explained to me that with the vestibular system you get headaches because the connection’s been rattled and your brain is having to compensate. Maybe your neck doesn’t think your head is in the position it is.

“When your brain has to compensate for that you get things like headaches and trouble with the eyes, which is why I was getting headrush or those kinds of symptoms. It was all explained quite well so I knew exactly what was going