Owen Farrell suffered the injury in training with his club Saracens ahead of an expected comeback this Sunday against London Irish in the EPCR Challenge Cup; England face Scotland in Six Nations opener at Murrayfield on February 5
Friday 21 January 2022 12:19, UK
England captain Owen Farrell is set to miss next week's pre-Six Nations training camp in Brighton after suffering an injury in training with his club Saracens.
Farrell had been in contention to make his return to action in Sarries' EPCR Challenge Cup match against London Irish for the first time since suffering an ankle injury in England's Autumn Nations Series win over Australia in November.
But although the 30-year-old, who was named in Eddie Jones' 36-man squad ahead of a five-day training camp in Brighton, had fully recovered from that, he has now suffered another setback.
He is now not expected to link up with England next week, but the full extent of this latest injury is not yet known.
"Owen Farrell suffered an injury in training this week ahead of the game against London Irish, ruling him out of the match," Saracens said in a statement.
"Owen was back in full training having recovered from the ankle injury he sustained against Australia during the autumn internationals.
"We will have a further update after he sees a specialist early next week."
Depending on the outcome of that assessment from a specialist, the injury could place doubt on Farrell's participation in England's Six Nations campaign which kicks off away to Scotland on Saturday, February 5.
The fly-half and inside centre had otherwise been making good progress after requiring surgery on his injured ankle and Saracens had been cautiously optimistic he would be able to feature at home to London Irish on Sunday.
"This is the first week he's done any team training," Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said earlier this week. "We've just got to see how he reacts to the training.
"Owen has worked hard. He's been running independently of the team for a couple of weeks now. He's been involved in some team training this week."
Even if he does recover in time to face Scotland, Farrell will likely head into that match will little or no game-time for his club underneath his belt, with Saracens' only other fixture prior to the start of the Six Nations being a Gallagher Premiership match at home to Wasps on Sunday, January 30.
If Farrell does not start at Murrayfield, England head coach Jones could well turn to Courtney Lawes to captain the side after the Northampton Saints forward won plaudits for his performance as skipper in the win over Rugby World Cup holders South Africa.
But while the Australian is in no doubt Farrell remains the best man to lead the national team, former England full-back Mike Brown believes there are plenty of other options should he fall out of the picture.
"I'm sure Owen knows that if he doesn't produce for Sarries he won't be playing because England have got guys who can step up to the captaincy now and do the job," Brown said.
