Saracens' update on England doubt Farrell three days after injury

Saracens have provided an update on the first steps being taken by Owen Farrell in his bid to get back fit in time for the start of the four-game England Autumn Nations series versus Argentina on November 6. The London club’s No10 suffered a concussion last Saturday in their win at Exeter and Mark McCall, their director of rugby, reported post-game that his player would be facing a twelve-day standdown period.

That timeframe would leave Farrell short on training with England if they were to select him to face the Pumas, but McCall explained on Tuesday afternoon that the 31-year-old was still a chance for the opening match of the series despite the alteration by World Rugby to the protocols governing concussion.

It was last June when the game’s global governing body changed its approach and stated at the time that “players with a history of concussion or who are removed from a match with obvious concussion symptoms would sit out from play for a minimum of twelve days”.

That stipulation means Farrell shouldn’t be available to train fully with England at the start of next week, a restriction that could likely see Eddie Jones look elsewhere with his selection as he usually places huge importance on players training the full week before a Test match.

Having been named last week in the 36-strong England squad that was to assemble in Jersey on Monday for a five-day training camp, it was decided post the weekend that Farrell would be best served by progressing through his graduated return-to-play protocols at home with Saracens rather than on the Channel Island.

“Yeah, he is at the club. He has been in the last two days to see the medics and got through the procedures and the process he has to,” said McCall, who was then asked about the revised World Rugby protocols and what Farrell was expected to do in order to be declared fit for England. “You would probably need to talk to someone else for the exact A to Z of what he needs to do but it is a little bit different now and potentially a bit longer.

“We will wait and see. There is still a chance that he will be available to play in game one and fingers crossed that is the case. He is certainly going in in good form. He had a really strong start to the season. He’ll be okay, I think.”

If England don’t select Farrell versus Argentina, might there be a chance he could instead play for Saracens versus Bristol in the Premiership on November 5? “I wouldn’t have thought that would be the case, no.” Going back to the recent performances of Farrell, McCall added: “He has hit the ground running this year, he is good on both sides of the ball, he has controlled games well so he is right on top of things at the minute.”

Farrell featured in just four of the eleven England matches last season as separate ankle operations forced him out of the Autumn Nations Series mid-campaign and then sidelined him from the entire Guinness Six Nations. He returned for the July tour versus Australia but wasn’t reinstated as captain as Courtney Lawes was left to skipper the team.