Christian Wade names the city where he expects to play his rugby

Former Wasps star Christian Wade has teased that his return to full-time rugby is near, adding that his likely destination is a club based in London. The 31-year-old hasn’t featured in the Gallagher Premiership since an October 2018 appearance for Wasps, the winger quitting to go and try his luck in American football with the Buffalo Bills.

He returned to England earlier this summer following the expiry of his Bills contract in America and reckoned that he could make a return to rugby. However, a concrete deal has so far been slow in materialising with the Premiership market squeezed due to the reduced salary cap.

The possibility of a medical joker slot took him to France last weekend. New Racing 92 signing Regan Grace suffered a ruptured achilles playing rugby league for St Helens, an injury that will sideline him until early 2023, and this resulted in Wade trying out for the Parisians in last Saturday’s sevens tournament in Pau.

Despite having played no rugby in four years since exiting Wasps, his first match showed that he hadn’t lost his finishing touch as he scored the second and third Racing tries in their 33-5 round of 16 win over Montpellier.

Racing went on to reach the semi-finals and Wade tweeted afterwards: “Was a privilege to play alongside some of the future of French rugby. Some awesome talent, Racing 92. Thanks for having me and hope you enjoyed the tournament as much as I did!”

The French club replied with a “You’re the man!” tweet, but it now seems that the Wade won’t be playing rugby across the channel and will instead be based in London with the new club season set to start next weekend.

Again taking to Twitter, Wade tweeted: “My return to rugby is imminent…” This left fans guessing where he might end up and he later hinted where his destination will be in a one-word follow-up message: “London.”

Despite not playing rugby for four years, the prolific Wade is still ranked the fourth highest Premiership try-scorer of all time. His tally of 82 is just 13 tries behind Chris Ashton of Leicester who took the No1 position off Tom Varndell earlier this year.

Asked on Tuesday if he had seen the clip of Wade scoring for Racing in last weekend's sevens tournament, Wasps boss Lee Blackett said: "I didn't see it, was it a good try?" Told he stepped in off his wing and blitzed through two people to score, he added: "I've seen it before, mate."