England captain Owen Farrell was forced to withdraw late from Saracens’ Heineken Champions Cup encounter against Glasgow Warriors in order to undergo surgery on an injured wrist suffered in training.
The fly-half was due to start Saturday’s European match at Allianz Park in the No 10 shirt, but he was withdrawn from the squad on the day of the match and forced Saracens into a reshuffle as Alex Goode moves to fly-half and Liam Williams to full-back, with David Strettle coming into the starting line-up on the wing and Matt Gallagher onto the bench.
Farrell will have surgery on the base of his injured thumb on Saturday, but speaking to BT Sport Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall eased fears that Farrell could miss the start of England’s Six Nations campaign, which gets underway on 2 February against reigning champions Ireland, and said that the problem was a “minor” one.
The injury is expected to take seven-to-10 days to recover, with McCall adding that Farrell will be “back for Ireland vs England” in two weeks’ time, but it will be a big concern for head coach Eddie Jones who named Farrell as his captain for the trip to Dublin in the absence of the injured Dylan Hartley.
It also means that Farrell will be unable to play a full part in England’s pre-Six Nations training camp in Portugal next week, with the 27-year-old unlikely to be in a condition to take part in full contact until the week of the Ireland game.
