Injured Saracens skipper Steve Borthwick faces anxious wait ahead of finals

 
Pain game: Steve Borthwick receives attention after damaging his shoulder during Saracens’ Premiership semi-final win
David Rogers/Getty Images
Chris Jones19 May 2014

Steve Borthwick was set to discover today if a shoulder injury will rule him out of Saracens’ bid for a Heineken Cup and Premiership double.

The skipper was having a scan on the shoulder he damaged in the second half of the 31-17 Premiership semi-final win over Harlequins, which also saw England full-back Mike Brown limp off with a hamstring problem.

Brown’s injury is understood to be a slight strain and his place on the three-Test summer tour to New Zealand is not under threat. He will be assessed by the England medical team, who will be charge of his rehabilitation as the domestic season is now over for Quins.

For Borthwick, the injury could mean missing Saturday’s Heineken Cup Final with Toulon in Cardiff and the Premiership Final with Northampton at Twickenham on May 31. Sarries are also awaiting the results of an investigation by Gerard McEvilly, the Rugby Football Union’s head of discipline, into a claim that wing Chris Ashton tried to put Quins kicker Nick Evans off as he took a conversion during the semi-final.

The RFU are reported to have ordered an investigation into an incident at the end of the first-half, which could result in a misconduct charge for the Saracens wing. Ashton allegedly shouted “push it” as he ran towards Evans and if found guilty could be given a match ban.

But Mark McCall’s main focus is the fitness of Borthwick, who will be retiring at the end of the season.

“I hope he is okay,” said the Sarries director of rugby. “His career does not deserve to finish now but in two weeks. We will not know the extent of his injury for a few days.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in