Dylan Hartley ruled out of England tour to South Africa by concussion
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England captain Dylan Hartley has had his season ended by concussion and will miss the three-Test series against South Africa.
Hartley joins Anthony Watson , Jonathan Joseph, Courtney Lawes and Nathan Hughes in being ruled out of the June tour.
Eddie Jones’ team are desperate to end a run of three straight defeats but will have to do it with a new skipper and much-changed team.
Owen Farrell, who took over the armband when Hartley was benched for the Six Nations clash with France in March, is expected to step up again.
(Image: Getty)
Hartley, who has not played since being concussed playing against Ireland last month, revealed that specialists had advised him to take a decent break.
“While I find that decision hard to accept, it’s important I listen to that advice,” he said. “I intend to use this time to recover fully from my injury.”
Two years ago, after missing 14 weeks of the season due to head knocks, Hartley voiced concerns that one more concussion injury could end his career.
"If I got another one now, I would be worried,” he said at the time. “I would probably start looking at other careers, or maybe a long lay-off.”
Jones was thought keen to rest his British and Irish Lions stars for the Boks series but Hartley’s perennial understudy Jamie George is unlikely to get the summer off now.