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Saracens centre Alex Lozowski banned for two weeks but will return for England's autumn Tests

Alex Lozowski handed a two-week ban this morning: Getty Images
Alex Lozowski handed a two-week ban this morning: Getty Images

Saracens centre Alex Lozowski was handed a two-week ban this morning but will be available for the start of England’s autumn campaign.

Lozowski will be free to resume playing on October 29 and is expected to be named in Eddie Jones’s squad for a training camp in Portugal and the four November Tests tomorrow morning.

The 25-year-old is not entirely out of the woods, though, as European Professional Club Rugby — who run the Champions Cup — and Saracens have the right to appeal the decision.

The independent panel’s decision will be a relief for Jones, whose squad have suffered a miserable run of injuries — the latest being former captain Chris Robshaw, who yesterday underwent knee surgery.

Wasps No8 Nathan Hughes is due to learn his fate tonight as his disciplinary hearing after being cited for punching Gloucester’s Lewis Ludlow resumes.

Lozowski was charged with two acts of foul play in Saracens’ feisty 13-3 win in Glasgow on Sunday.

The charge of a dangerous tackle on Ruaridh Jackson was dismissed after the panel heard telephone evidence from the Glasgow full-back. However, he was found guilty of entering a ruck dangerously and making contact with Glasgow hooker Fraser Brown.

The panel decided he should have been shown a red card by French referee Mathieu Raynal but that it was worthy of a low entry point punishment on the scale of disciplinary guidelines laid down by World Rugby.

Lozowski toured South Africa with England in the summer without adding to his four caps but his form for Saracens has made him a leading contender for action in the upcoming Tests.

England start their campaign against South Africa on November 3, five days after Lozowski suspension ends, and they also face world champions New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

Lozowski is aiming to oust Exeter’s Henry Slade from the outside centre spot, but his versatility — he can also play 10 or 12 — makes him a candidate to cover the bench.

Hughes’s first hearing was called off last week after it emerged he had tweeted ‘What a joke’ prior to appearing before the board. The punch occurred in the final minute of Wasps’ 35-21 defeat but was not immediately picked up by referee Craig Maxwell-Keys.