Maro Itoje ruled out for ‘several weeks’ with chipped knee-cap as Champions Cup teams are announced

England lock suffered the injury during the autumn but played on unaware of the damage for both club and country and will now miss the back-to-back European games against Cardiff Blues

Maro Itoje will miss several weeks after chipping his patella bone in his right knee (PA)

Saracens and England have suffered a blow with the news that Maro Itoje will be out for several weeks after chipping his knee-cap, despite playing with the injury unaware of the damage for a number of weeks.

Itoje took a knock to his right knee before England’s final autumn international against Australia at the end of November, but felt fine to continue playing and remained on the field for the entire 80 minutes against the Wallabies in the 38-18 victory at Twickenham.

The second row returned to club duty last weekend, playing 70 minutes in Saracens’ 29-6 win over Wasps after being named in the starting line-up, but after the match his knee started to swell and a decision was taken this week to send him for a scan, which revealed the true extent of the damage.

The fractured patella will rule him out of the back-to-back Heineken Champions Cup games with Cardiff Blues over the course of the next two weekends, and makes him highly unlikely to play in the top-of-the-table Premiership clash against Exeter Chiefs on 22 December.

The absence of the 24-year-old comes at a busy time of the year for Saracens as they also face Worcester Warriors before the year is out, although with a trip to Sale Sharks and European games against Glasgow Warriors and Lyon in January, he still has time to regain match fitness before the Six Nations begins on the first weekend in February.

Itoje joins a long injury list at Saracens with George Kruis still a week away from returning after suffering a calf injury on England duty early in November, while director of rugby Mark McCall is hoping to have Billy Vunipola back from his third broken arm setback before 2018 is out.

There is good news at least in the return of his older brother, Mako, from a calf injury as he starts this Sunday’s clash against Cardiff at Allianz Park, with Saracens looking to make it three wins from three in Pool 3, but Liam Williams (hamstring), David Strettle (foot), Hisa Sasagi (groin), Hayden Thompson-Stringer (hamstring) and Duncan Taylor (knee) are all unavailable.

Exeter, meanwhile, recall the internationals that they chose to rest last weekend, knowing that anything but victory will end their European aspirations for another year. Rob Baxter elected not to select any players who had featured in the autumn internationals the week before for the Friday night encounter with Harlequins, only to suffer a narrow 28-26 defeat at the Twickenham Stoop.

But with European rugby back on the menu, Baxter recalls his refreshed internationals as Ben Moon, Sam Skinner, Henry Slade and Santiago Cordero all start, with Alec Hepburn and Tomas Francis returning to the bench – though Harry Williams is left out – with Exeter desperate for a win after starting Pool 2 with a win and a draw.

Rob Baxter recalls a number of his internationals for the clash with Gloucester (Getty)

Despite the loss last week, Baxter has no regrets over his decision. “If we had brought them back in then we would have lost out on both counts. In hindsight, there is no guarantee it would have won us the game and we would be heading into massive games with players who hadn’t had a break.

“And I don’t just mean a physical break, but a mental break as well. Some of the guys for example – Harry Williams or Alec Hepburn – didn’t play a lot of minutes, but they are now in full training and look good and ready to go. That little bit of a breather to reset themselves mentally and physically was important. We might still have lost the game and they wouldn’t have got that.”

Franco Mostert made his Gloucester debut last week but is left out of the side (Getty)

They face Gloucester for the second time in three weeks, with Johan Ackermann handing South African hooker Jaco Visagie his first start for the club after joining on a short-term deal in November in one of six changes. Gerbrandt Grobler returns at lock with Jake Polledri back in at openside flanker, but there is still no Franco Mostert as the dispute with the Lions and South Africa Rugby continues to rage on. Matt Banahan, Tom Hudson and Henry Trinder all come into the back line.

Leicester Tigers boss Geordan Murphy recalls Australia back Matt Toomua to the starting line-up to face last season’s runners-up and Pool 4 leaders Racing 92 in place of banned centre Kyle Eastmond following his red card last weekend. Ben Youngs drops to the bench in place of Ben White as Murphy looks to give the England scrum-half something of a breather, while Tatafu Polota-Nau, Harry Wells and Mike Fitzgerald also come into the starting line-up as Leicester bid to avoid a seventh straight defeat in all competitions on a daunting trip to Paris.

Leicester face a daunting trip to Paris to face Racing 92 (Getty)

Wasps make just three changes to the side that lost to Saracens as hooker Tom Cruse and flanker Thomas Young return from respective rib and leg knocks, with wing Josh Bassett back after being rested. Despite losing their opening Champions Cup game to Leinster and then drawing with Bath, back-to-back victories over unbeaten Toulouse would propel Dai Youngs’ side back into the mix in Pool 1.

Bath meanwhile are without fly-half Freddie Burns for their clash with Leinster due to a foot injury, with the former England international joining fellow No 10 Rhys Priestland on the injury list that means James Wilson starts. Veteran centre Jamie Roberts returns to a side that will be skippered by England lock Charlie Ewels, while former Sevens star Ruaridh McConnochie continues at full-back with his second consecutive start.