He was man-of-the-match in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Cardiff Blues, which resulted in a historic sudden death kicking competition.

First, in an April 2012 Premiership match against Harlequins Croft mistimed tackle on Nick Easter and suffered a triple fracture of his C6 vertebra,[16] a specialist described the injury "as close as you can to being paralysed",[6] He returned to the Tigers after 8 months injured in January 2013 against Worcester.

He gained starting places in the squad at blindside flanker for three games against the Pacific Islanders, Australia and South Africa, before being named on the bench against New Zealand.

On 20 May 2009, Croft was called up to the squad by coach Ian McGeechan for the Lions 2009 tour of South Africa as a replacement for the banned Alan Quinlan.

Despite making the shortlist and having started the first two games of the Autumn Internationals, Croft found himself demoted to the bench for the third test, against New Zealand.

Croft's second knee injury in the 2009–10 season saw him miss out on the 2010 Six Nations entirely,[28] though he regained his starting place from James Haskell for the Australian summer tour.

[29] He switched to openside flanker to cover injured captain Lewis Moody halfway through the second half of the first Test, which England lost 27–17.

Croft took part in the 2010 Autumn Internationals, starting in both the loss to New Zealand[32] and the win against Australia, the latter cited by many to have been the best England performance for years.

[35] Croft made his international return two years later during the 2015 Six Nations against Italy and Ireland in his final England appearance.