Saracens sweating on Owen Farrell fitness for Champions Cup clash with Ospreys after injury blow

Owen Farrell will be a fitness doubt for Saracens’ Champions Cup last-16 clash with Ospreys next weekend.

The England captain suffered a recurrence of the ankle injury that clouded his preparations for the final Six Nations match, the 29-16 defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

Farrell managed to shake off the issue in time to start England’s Aviva Stadium trip, but hobbled out of the closing stages of Saracens’ 36-24 win over Harlequins on Saturday.

Sarries sealed a top-two Premiership finish in front of a 55,000-strong crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the only blot being Farrell’s injury scare.

Rugby director Mark McCall admitted Farrell had added a new niggle to his existing issue, handing the 31-year-old eight days to work back to fitness for Saracens’ Ospreys clash next Sunday.

“I think he’s just aggravated the ankle that he aggravated with England,” said McCall. “So I don’t know how that’s going to be for next week, we’ll wait and see.

“I’ve seen him in the changing room and he’s okay, we just need to see to what degree he’s aggravated it. It was a grade one before which is normally a seven-day turnaround that he managed to do for the England week, and played that game.

“Whether or not it’s still a grade one, we’ll see, but if it’s more than that, he won’t play. We want to make a good decision on that. It would be great to have him, but if we don’t have him, we don’t have him and we’ll get on with it. We certainly won’t play him if he’s not right.”

Saracens’ home play-off match is now secure, with three games still to play of the regular season. Harlequins ran in four tries to the hosts’ five, but in truth were never quite able to turn an entertaining clash into a genuine contest.

McCall’s Men In Black are returning to their status as the team to beat, and their inexorable march to the league semi-finals represents an ominous warning for their Premiership rivals. Farrell stepped back in to lead the team after his England duties, and did so in comfortable style until his injury.

“I thought he was great, all the good stuff in attack, he became central to that, but he had some really great interventions defensively as well,” said McCall. “Qualifying for the semi-finals with three games to go, that’s an achievement that is down to the whole squad, not just those who played today.

“We’ve used 48 players in 17 games, which is a lot. To have that home play-off game secure is down to the whole squad.”

Harlequins are now right up against it to push into the Premiership’s top-four play-off berths. Head coach Tabai Matson hailed his side for claiming a four-try bonus point, and insisted they will not give up on their play-off hope.

“We’re not out of the Premiership, this just makes it harder,” said Matson. “I’m not sure of the maths now and what happens at the end of the weekend, but if there’s a mathematical chance we will fight to the end.”