Billy Vunipola’s nightmare continues after the Saracens No 8 pulled up with a hamstring problem halfway through a routine training session only three days after his long-awaited return from a broken arm.
Vunipola has had a wretched 18 months with knee and shoulder injuries limiting his appearances for club and country, with last Sunday’s 20-minute cameo from the replacement bench against London Irish taking his total game time for the season to just 249 minutes.
With an England squad to tour South Africa to be named next Thursday this latest set-back could not have come at a worse time for the 25 year old who won the last of his 34 England caps as far back as March 2017 against Ireland in Dublin.
At this stage Saracens regard the hamstring issue as just one of those irritating problems that can crop up when a player is coming back from injury and has put extra strain on his body as he pushes for fitness.
Vunipola immediately went for treatment after being forced to quit the session and is expected to miss the last Saracens game of the regular season at home to Gloucester on Saturday. Saracens are already through to the play-offs and will have a two week break before their home semi-final against either Wasps or Newcastle Falcons on May 19.
Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, is awaiting updates on Vunipola’s condition but refused to be too downbeat about Vunipola’s fitness for the end-of-season play-offs.
“It is unlikely we would risk him this weekend,” said McCall. “He had some awareness (tightness) in his hamstring last week but has trained well with us and looked good against London Irish. Nothing happened (in training). Billy just felt some tightness. It is not pulled or anything. He was being sensible. It is not in his nature to plough on. We would not play him if we thought that he would pull a hamstring in a game.”
McCall dismissed the notion that they would advise that their player does not tour with England as Bath did on Tuesday when stating that flanker, Sam Underhill, looked ‘broken’ when he came back from an England training camp and is currently on the sidelines recuperating from a foot injury.
“That would be two-faced of us as regards Billy,” said McCall.
“He has looked great in training, looked good against London Irish and trained well with us on Tuesday in a lighter session. He is ready to play (in that regard). The common sense thing to do was pull out of the session which he did. If we have to scan it we will. That’s likely to happen,”