Tom Croft: To miss the autumn internationals and Six Nations
England and Leicester flanker Tom Croft is set to miss the entire season with a knee injury.
The 27-year-old, who started the first Test for the British & Irish Lions against Australia this summer, suffered cruciate knee ligament damage during Leicester's win over Worcester at the weekend.
He has been forced to have reconstructive surgery and will miss England's autumn international schedule along with their Six Nations campaign.
The British & Irish Lion is also unlikely to return in time for the culmination of the domestic and European seasons, when Leicester will hope to be involved in the latter stages of the Heineken Cup and pushing to retain their Aviva Premiership crown.
The injury is another huge setback for Croft, who broke his neck playing against Harlequins in April 2012 and subsequently spent almost a year on the sidelines before returning in January.
Richard Cockerill told the Daily Mail: "Tom had a bang on the knee at the weekend.
"We felt it was relatively innocuous but after further investigation the ACL (anterior cruciate) ligament was ruptured and he has had surgery to reconstruct it and that's his season finished.
"It's horrendous bad luck for Tom because it is only last year that he came back from a very bad neck injury and did so well for England but the Lions as well. But these things happen.
"Tom will make a full recovery but it's his season over. It's a blow but we have just got to get on with things."
