England captain Martin Johnson has lost his appeal against reducing a five-week suspension for foul play.

The appeal against the ban, which was imposed by the Rugby Football Union, was heard by a three-man disciplinary panel at Coventry Post House Hotel last night.

The panel decided the ban should remain the same, so it will end the day before England's Six Nations Championship opener against Wales in Cardiff on February 3.

By appealing 30-year-old Johnson had run the risk of receiving a tougher sentence, which could have ruined England manager Clive Woodward's preparations.

Johnson was cited after the Tetley's Bitter Cup quarter-final against Saracens and the Leicester second-row star will miss tomorrow's semi-final against Harlequins as well as the next three Heineken European Cup games.

An RFU statement said: "The panel could find no fault with the reasoning of the original disciplinary panel and refused the appeal.

"In the circumstances they decided not to increase the penalty."

Johnson received three separate punishments at the original hearing on December 28. He was banned for five weeks for a stamping offence, three weeks for dropping a knee onto a prone player and another week for punching Saracens prop Julian White in the December 9 clash at Welford Road.

All three bans ran concurrently, with Johnson last night challenging the first and last components.

There had been speculation that Johnson's appeal could rule him out of the Wales clash because of an RFU rule which states that any ban is suspended from the date of appeal until a final outcome is reached. But this has also been ignored in the panel's final judgement, to which Johnson has no further appeal.