Saracens lose Alex Goode until 2025

Saracens veteran Alex Goode has been ruled out for 10-12 weeks after undergoing surgery on a quad injury.

The 36-year-old pulled up in the warm-up of Saracens' most Gallagher Premiership fixture, a 29-32 loss to Leicester Tigers at the StoneX Stadium, and was replaced at fly-half by Tim Swiel, who had only recently signed for the club as injury cover.

The injury to the former European player of the year plunges Saracens further into a fly-half crisis, with Louie Johnson also ruled out until the new year after having an operation on a biceps tear.

Swiel had only been recruited a matter of days before the three-time Champions Cup winners hosted Leicester, and was originally scheduled to start on the bench. Goode's injury threw him in at the deep end though, with director of rugby Mark McCall explaining after the loss that he was not even aware of some of the calls being made.

“We had a lot of disruption to deal with this week. We lost Fergus [Burke] on Wednesday and then Alex in the warm-up,” McCall said.

“Tim Swiel hadn’t run a play with us and for him to get thrown in at the deep end wasn’t easy.

“The lads were making calls and Tim didn’t know what they were. It’s not a great situation, but he managed his way through the game and I thought he did really well.

“Our rugby wasn’t great, but we did have the resolve and resilience and that gets you a long way.

“There’s a good way to lose and a bad way to lose and that was one of the better ways.”

Saracens face rivals Harlequins this weekend in the Premiership Rugby Cup before turning their attention back to the Premiership with a trip to Newcastle Falcons at the end of the month.