Saracens boss Mark McCall is hopeful that Owen Farrell will be fit for their Champions Cup quarter-final with Leinster next Sunday (3.30pm).
The England out-half suffered a thigh injury in the Six Nations defeat to Ireland last weekend and missed out on the English side’s 24-11 Premiership victory over Harlequins yesterday, as did lock George Kruis.
"We hope he will be [fit] but there’s no guarantee," McCall told Talking Rugby.
"He’s got a quad injury, it’s a muscle injury and you never really know with these things.
"George Kruis has got a back injury, it is what it is and we’ll deal with what we have to do next week."
Leinster, meanwhile, have their own injury concerns.
Leo Cullen’s side lost Dave Kearney, Fergus McFadden and Noel Reid in the first-half of their defeat to Ospreys last night, and are already without Robbie Hensahw and Josh van der Flier.
Sean O'Brien's return from hip surgery on 9 March ago was cut short when he suffered a shoulder injury against Scarlets.
"He's not a million miles away so we'll see how he progresses," Cullen said during the week.
Saracens were able to welcome back a host of international players including lock Maro Itoje, who scored a try in a man of the match performance.
"Good across the board," was McCall’s summary of the returning players, which also included Wales’ Liam Williams, who scored Sarries' other try.
"We gave away some penalties, which gave Harlequins some field position but I thought we showed some good desperation at crucial times to fight hard in our goal-line and our 22, when we went down to 14 men (sin-bin), those are all the qualities that we are going to need next week.
"Everybody in the changing room knows that we are going to have to be better but we know we will be."
Reaction 🎥 | Behind the scenes from the London Stadium after Saracens fought to beat @Harlequins thanks to tries from @SanjayWills & @maroitoje. You can hear from Maro, @DomDay5 & @alexlozowski10 after the game in front of a sell out crowd this afternoon! 🏉 pic.twitter.com/W7B1IzdCYu
— Saracens Rugby Club (@Saracens) March 24, 2018
In Farrell’s absence, Alex Lozowski stood in and kicked 14 points. He declared that the current European champions are prioritising the retention of their crown over their league ambitions.
"It’s going to be a belter," he said.
"Two teams who are desperate to win, desperate to do well in this competition. International players throughout on both teams, it’s going to be like a Test match probably.
"We’re going to be putting all eggs in that basket next week to make sure we get a result.
"It’s going to take a huge effort against a very good team, [there’s] unbelievable excitement for next week."
Team News | Half an hour to go until kick off at @LondonStadium. Here's a reminder of the Sarries line up 👇 pic.twitter.com/roObuKOhp8
— Saracens Rugby Club (@Saracens) March 24, 2018
