Owen Farrell faces a battle to be fit to end his 16-year Saracens tenure on his own terms after failing to shake off a hamstring problem.
The former England captain will be sidelined for at least a few weeks with a hamstring issue, and will miss Saturday’s Champions Cup last-16 trip to Bordeaux.
The 32-year-old came off in the closing stages of last Friday night’s 40-31 Premiership defeat at Northampton, with boss Mark McCall branding the problem “hamstring awareness”.
At that point Saracens were hopeful that their talismanic skipper would be able to shake off the issue to feature in France this weekend.
And even in the early week fitness update, attack coach Kevin Sorrell confirmed the Saracens squad had a clean bill of health barring Scotland flanker Andy Christie, who suffered a broken arm against Northampton.
Farrell was unable to beat his hamstring issue in time for the knockout trip to Bordeaux however, and now Alex Goode will start at fly-half, with Manu Vunipola providing cover from the bench.
Farrell will leave his sole club Saracens this summer, heading for Racing 92 in Paris.
He made his senior Saracens debut in 2008 and notched his 250th club appearance in the 52-7 thrashing of Harlequins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last month.
Saracens and Farrell are still in the hunt for a seventh Premiership title and fourth European crown, but their continental ambitions are fully on the line this weekend.
Sarries suffered their record European loss at Bordeaux in January with the 55-15 group stage defeat, and Farrell’s absence will render their redemption mission all the tougher now.
Saracens team to face Bordeaux
E Daly; S Maitland, L Cinti, N Tompkins, A Lewington; A Goode, I Van Zyl; Mako Vunipola, J George (capt), C Judge; M Itoje, H Tizard; T McFarland, B Earl, B Vunipola. Replacements: T Dan, E Mawi, M Riccioni, JM Gonzalez, T Willis, G Simpson, Manu Vunipola, O Hartley.
