Johnson and Corry may be banned for Leicester finale

Leicester's end of season is turning into a disciplinary nightmare. Martin Corry appears before a panel this evening following his red card against Saracens on Sunday and yesterday it was announced that Martin Johnson is also going up before the beak after picking up a yellow card in the same match.

Leicester's end of season is turning into a disciplinary nightmare. Martin Corry appears before a panel this evening following his red card against Saracens on Sunday and yesterday it was announced that Martin Johnson is also going up before the beak after picking up a yellow card in the same match.

With their Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse on Sunday and, should they win it, the final on 22 May looming, the last thing the Tigers need is to lose two key players for these games.

But there is now a real prospect of them being without Corry for at least three weeks, after he was sent off for elbowing his fellow England international Richard Hill above the right eye, an injury which required half a dozen stitches. Ordinarily, the offence might warrant a three-week suspension, but if the disciplinary panel take exception to the fact Corry had earlier this season been banned for two weeks after being found guilty of stamping, against Bath, they may well opt for a longer ban this time, which could even have repercussions on his Lions availability.

Leicester have one more Premiership match after this weekend, followed by the Championship play-offs, so were they to lose to Toulouse on Sunday, and Johnson were then to be banned for three weeks, that Walkers Stadium appearance would be the last competitive match of his otherwise distinguished career, because he has announced his retirement as a player from the end of this season.

It was Johnson's third spell in the sin-bin for foul play this season and incurs an automatic disciplinary hearing. But while Corry's case was squeezed into the schedule at the M6 Holiday Inn near Coventry, Johnson's case cannot be heard until next Monday because tonight's list is full.

The Leicester captain had received the card for punching the flanker Ben Russell, who was also shown a yellow after retaliating with a flurry of punches. The former England captain's two previous offences of striking an opponent this season were against Northampton at Welford Road in September and when the teams met in the Premiership return in February.

Although Johnson did not lodge an appeal against the previous two yellow cards, he might choose to do so with this one, but the likelihood of that buying him extra time is remote, since the panel would be more inclined to hear the appeal, and if it were turned down would then hear the original case for the accumulation of the three cards.

Newcastle's utility back Dave Walder, who has stood in admirably for the fly-half Jonny Wilkinson this season, has signed a new contract that will keep him at Kingston Park for the next two years. But Falcons' Tonga wing Epi Taione is set to join Sale at the end of this season, and Mike Stephenson, who underwent surgery on the broken leg sustained against Northampton last Friday, is reported to be about to move to Bath.