At the match against Scotland at Northampton, England players will pay their own tribute to the Leicester prop, an Under-21 regular this term, who was badly hurt during a scrummaging session at Franklins Gardens on Tuesday.

After being assessed at Northampton General Hospital, he will be transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which has one of the finest spinal injury centres in the world, for an operation to reduce and stabilise the fracture in his neck.

Further to the injury sustained by Matt Hampson on Tuesday, we consulted with Matts parents and asked them if they wished the game to continue, said England Under-21 team manager Pete Drewett.

They have left the decision to the players, who unanimously decided that they wanted to play the game as a tribute to Matt, and each player will wear the letters MH under their England Under-21 insignia.

Our thoughts remain with Matt and his family at this difficult time, and our aim now is to put in a good performance for him and his parents on Friday night.

The senior England squad, meanwhile, will donate their shirts from Saturdays Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland to a charity auction to raise money to help 20-year-old Hampson.
Matts injury puts everything else in rugby into perspective, said England captain Martin Corry.

The whole of the England squad are greatly saddened by the news. We hope the money raised can in some way help Matt and his family during his recovery.