Eddie Jones hopeful of Courtney Lawes' fitness ahead of autumn internationals

England coach Eddie Jones expressed hope that Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes will be fit in time for the Old Mutual Wealth Series opener against South Africa at Twickenham on 12th November.

Lawes, who has featured 49 times for his country, missed Northampton Saints' clashes against Montpellier and Gloucester due to a knee injury and is a doubtful starter for England's November Tests as revealed by club's rugby director Jim Mallinder.

With Maro Itoje and George Kruis already out of the autumn internationals, England have added Josh Beaumont in their training squad as a cover to Lawes.

Despite, the doubt over his participation in the clash against Springboks, Jones said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the 27-year-old's inclusion for the Springboks Test.

"Courtney's medical situation is ongoing. He probably won't train much this week, if at all. We're cautiously optimistic he'll be all right for the South Africa game," Jones said.

England skipper Dylan Hartley has recently recovered from a back injury which sidelined him for almost a month and has made two appearances since then on his comeback.

England are currently undergoing a training camp in Portugal for a week to aid their preparations for the upcoming Tests and Jones admitted that the training camp will give a clear indication on the fitness of the players.

"We'll see if Dylan is ready at the end of the week," Jones said at the squad's hotel in Vilamoura.

"We'll have a good week's training so we'll know where every player is in terms of how ready they are to play international rugby.

"Rugby is a physical, contact game. England pride themselves on having depth so this is a great opportunity to show how much depth we've got," Jones said.

"We've got an absolute plethora of injuries so we're trying to work out who is going to be right and who isn't.

"But we'll get there. What I do know is that we'll have a fit 23 players who are ready to beat South Africa."