Billy Vunipola will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury that has plunged his World Cup chances into jeopardy.
The Saracens No8 was carried from the Stade Marcel Deflandre field on a stretcher in Sunday’s 24-10 Champions Cup quarter-final defeat at La Rochelle.
Vunipola underwent scans yesterday that have led Saracens to rule him out for the remainder of the current campaign.
Barnet club bosses have not put a clear timeline on Vunipola’s recovery, but the 30-year-old will now face an uphill battle to be ready for the autumn’s World Cup in France.
“Billy’s an important player on and off the pitch for us in terms of how he is as a senior player,” said Saracens assistant coach Kevin Sorrell. “His influence will be missed. Over the last four to five weeks we had been really pleased with what we had seen from Billy.
“He does a lot of damage for us both with and without the ball. Anybody who has had a long-term injury, there are two sides to it. There is the physical side and the mental side as well and the support you need around that. Everyone will be looking out for Billy.”
Vunipola has hit fine form with Saracens this season but was omitted from new England boss Steve Borthwick’s Six Nations squad.
The powerful ball carrier was itching to use the business end of this campaign to state his case for an England return, as an added bonus amid helping Saracens push for yet more honours. Now both those joint aims have been taken away, and Sarries must cope without yet another back-row forward for the end of their Premiership campaign.
Theo McFarland was already a long-term absentee after knee ligament surgery, while Andy Christie suffered a broken arm in the Champions Cup last-16 win over Ospreys that ended his season prematurely too.
Second row Callum Hunter-Hill’s return to fitness offsets the growing back-row concerns, with Nick Isiekwe and Maro Itoje both options to feature in the back-row as well as at lock.
