Vunipola could return for Saracens

Saracens & England No. 8 Billy Vunipola is nearing a return to Premiership action, with Saracens revealing he might be able to play on Sunday.

The 25-year-old has been absent for a long spell after breaking his arm in the Champions Cup against Ospreys on January 13.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall is hoping to give Vunipola some game time before the Premiership play-offs and the club is set to make a call on the decision shortly before the team announcement for Sunday's clash against London Irish.

“We’ll make a decision on Friday as to whether he’s involved this weekend or whether we give him until next weekend,” McCall told Saracens.

“He’s close but hasn’t had a lot of field sessions and (Wednesday) was probably his toughest session so we’ll see how he reacts and make a decision Friday.

“It’s been almost 16 weeks that he’s been out and we just need to be careful to put him into a rugby match without playing much rugby; although he’s been out for that long, he was out for quite a long time with his previous injury and he doesn’t really have a bank of games behind him this year. I think he’s only played three full matches.

“It would be useful for him to have a couple of games before the semi-final for him to get back to somewhere near his best. The more game time he can get the better for Billy.”