British and Irish Lions 2017: Steve Borthwick hints at reinforcements as he refuses to rule out call-ups

Up to five players are expected to be called up ahead of Tuesday's game against the Chiefs

Steve Borthwick refused to confirm if any players will be called up to the British and Irish Lions squad (Getty)

A spiky Steve Borthwick refused to rule out the British and Irish Lions making multiple call-ups ahead of the final warm-up game before the first Test against the All Blacks, with Warren Gatland anticipated to add another five players to his squad.

Rumours began to circulate when All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen predicted that the Lions will call-up more players to their 40-man squad on Monday ahead of the game against the Chiefs in Hamilton, with reports suggesting that as many as five players could arrive to join up with the squad for just one week to cover the remaining mid-week games with the Chiefs and the Hurricanes.

Both Wales and Scotland are in close proximity to the Lions, with the former already in New Zealand for their tour game against Tonga in Auckland on Friday and the latter close by in Australia ahead of Saturday’s Test against the Wallabies. Ireland are also not too far away as they prepare for their match with Japan, although England are the other side of the world in South America as they wrap-up their two-Test tour or Argentina on Saturday night.

Asked on Friday ahead of this weekend’s match with the Maori All Blacks, Lions assistant coach Steve Borthwick hinted that reinforcements may be imminent be confirming the only confirmation of new arrivals will be via an official announcement.

“I think if there's a situation where call-ups are going to happen for any player that will be dealt with at the appropriate time when an announcement's to be made,” he said. “And right now there's no announcement.”

Borthwick’s evasive answers continued when asked about the injury that has threatened Owen Farrell’s participation in the first Test against the All Blacks, with the fly-half suffering a thigh strain during training on Thursday morning.

The initial prognosis looks to be around 10 days, which would mean Gatland would be taking a big gamble by playing him in Auckland next weekend, but Borthwick refused to be drawn on how long Farrell could take to recover.

After confirming that Farrell did not train on Friday, Borthwick hit back at the early suggestions that Farrell will be out for between a week and 10 days. “You deal with hypothetical and I'll deal with what the facts are,” Borthwick said. “He'll be back as soon as he's fit and able to be back.

“What we're working for is improvement, working on the aspects we're trying to develop. We need another step forward in performance. We’re looking to raise our level of performance in all different areas.”