Owen Farrell: England skipper could return for Saracens’ clash with Bristol

Colin Newboult

England's Owen Farrell (centre) shortly before going off injured during the Autumn International match at Twickenham Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday November 13, 2021.

England captain Owen Farrell may play a part in Saracens’ Premiership match against Bristol Bears on Saturday, according to Mark McCall.

The Red Rose skipper has not played at all since injuring his ankle against Australia in November.

Farrell was due to return in late January but suffered a setback which forced him to miss the whole of the Six Nations.

England struggled as a result, losing three of their five matches and finishing well behind Ireland and France in the table.

Chuffed to have him back

“Owen has been training over the last couple of weeks and fingers crossed he will be available on Saturday,” Saracens director of rugby McCall said.

“He has been in team training sessions for about two weeks we have had a training session just finished there now (Wednesday afternoon) and we will assess him tomorrow and Friday and make sure everything is okay and fingers crossed he will be able to take part in the game.

“He is the captain of the club and is a great player, everybody knows that, and for him personally, it’s great as well (that he is making a comeback) as he loves playing rugby and hasn’t played much.

“His last game was in November sometime. If he does play he is certainly looking forward to it. We’re chuffed to have him back.”

England endured a number of problems during the Six Nations but they particularly missed Farrell’s leadership.

McCall added: “The leader I know is sensational, to be honest. I have never come across someone who can lead in the way that he does. He can lead by example, that is obvious. He can lead vocally but he has got the clarity of thought to understand if something is wrong what needs to be fixed.

“He can find solutions to problems better than most. He can articulate that with his teammates better than most and he is an inspiration so as a captain his rare and unique, I think, and as a player, he is a force of nature.

“The bigger the game the better he is. He is a Test match animal. Nothing brings the best out of him more than a huge game of rugby and certainly, we have missed him over this period.

“The unfortunate thing with this period he has been out, it wasn’t one injury, it was two injuries. He was almost back in January and he was out doing a training session – like he did today – and got injured in that training session, so that was a double blow and hard to deal with it.

“But over the last six weeks, he has made an enormous contribution. It is not like he has been sulking in any way.

“He has been throwing himself into everything, helping our younger players, helping the team prepare off the field as best as possible.

“I have been really impressed with the enthusiasm he has shown for that but he likes to play and we are excited to have him back and he is excited to be back I think.”

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