Benhard Janse van Rensburg ruled out of England's November games after second head injury

Benhard Janse van Rensburg will miss England's autumn Nations Championship matches next month after a meeting with specialists, BBC Sport reports. The 29-year-old Bristol Bears centre, a midfield back who carries the ball into contact and makes tackles, has suffered two serious head injuries in three months.

The first came in Bristol's win over Northampton on 3 October. Janse van Rensburg was knocked unconscious while trying to tackle Henry Pollock, and he collided head-first with Pollock's knee. He was stretchered off.

His England career started well. He scored on his debut against Fiji, then left the field on a stretcher with a head injury in his second appearance, against Argentina, seven days later.

Born in South Africa, he joined Bristol from London Irish in 2023. He qualified for England on residency grounds in July and signed a new deal to stay at Ashton Gate earlier this month.

Bristol's director of rugby, Pat Lam, said medical guidance was for an absence of four to six weeks. The club preferred six weeks. Janse van Rensburg has returned to training, but he is not yet cleared for contact work, the part of training where players tackle and collide.

He will miss Bristol's Premiership match against Leicester at Ashton Gate on Friday. His next expected involvement is the Premiership clash with Bath on 4 December, after the international break. Lam said he will be ready to play against Bath.

For a player who had just put pen to paper on a new contract and was building a case for a place in England's backline, the stop-start few weeks have been hard going. Most of the work now is patient, step-by-step rehabilitation, with the medical team deciding when each stage is safe to move on. Whether he is ready for that date is a call the club and medical staff will make, not the player alone.