The Lions may come knocking for Stuart Lancaster © Getty Images

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The Rugby Football Union will not stand in Stuart Lancaster's way if he is chosen to lead the British & Irish Lions in 2017.

The news comes off the back of Lancaster's new six-year contract which was announced earlier in the week. In 2013, Warren Gatland took England assistants Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell to Australia and if the Lions come calling ahead of their trip to New Zealand then RFU CEO Ian Ritchie will give his blessing to any of the England coaches.

"To be honest I'm not even sure if there's a specific clause in the contracts, but that's irrelevant, because our view of life is that we would be supportive," Ritchie said. "So if people came knocking on the door, we would regard it as an honour, both for the organisation and for the individual.

"And we would be very happy to deal with that, should it come. Undoubtedly when people are asked to be involved everybody should regard it as an honour to be asked. The Lions would need to make a request and then we would deal with it, but, in general terms, we would be supportive."

With the heads of agreement deal between the RFU and Premiership Rugby up for renewal, player welfare is likely to be a key issue in the talks. The start to the 2014-15 Aviva Premiership season has seen a host of players sidelined and Ritchie says the issue will be addressed.

"A lot of these things have been dealt with through the clubs and responsibly too," Richie said. "The welfare of the player has to be the most important thing. It's early doors in the season as well. We all know what the fixture schedule is, it's something we all have to deal with, and the clubs are dealing with it in an extremely responsible way with regard to injuries.

"I think we handled between us the pressures around Rugby World Cup compensation extremely professionally. And I've every optimism we'll deal with the heads in the same way. Undoubtedly we'll be looking at how many matches there are and how it works. It's an important factor, for one thing a look at the international calendar over the next few years, it's pretty much written until 2019.

"I don't see that particularly changing, and we'll look at that in the discussion over the heads as well. Of course you need to look at rest periods, rotation of squads, it is a very demanding game. All I can say is I think between ourselves and the clubs, we have a close association on that, and we will do all we can to address it."