Courtney Lawes admits daddy duties mean he has had to prioritise certain aspects of his training regime during lockdown but claims England coach Eddie Jones has been very understanding of the situation.
The towering second-rower has four children under the age of seven to occupy at home, often leaving him short of time to fit in all his rugby training.
The 31-year-old appeared in all four of England’s 2020 Guinness Six Nations matches before the COVID-19 pandemic brought a halt to rugby.
During that time, Lawes leapt up to tied-sixth on England’s all-time appearances list with 85 caps and his veteran status means Jones has been more lenient with his training plan.
“I’m a human climbing frame for the most part [with four kids],” said Lawes in an interview with the Daily Mirror. “Until this week I had written off conditioning and running because I just didn’t have the time to do it all.
“After a full day of it (with the kids), when 7 o’clock comes round you don’t exactly feel motivated to go for a run.
“Eddie looks after me. I’m an old man now and he looks after his old boys! We still have to do a lot of training but maybe not quite as much.
“He knows what he wants out of every player and he’s been texting me every week during this period to make sure everything’s all right.
“Fortunately, I can get back fit quite quickly but I struggle to get my strength and size back so I’ve concentrated on keeping going with that. I’ve only lost 2kg so that’s good.”
