Henry Arundell is likely to move back to the Premiership next season with Bath.

Telegraph Sport understands that the 22-year-old will secure an early release from his Racing 92 contract and return home to make himself available for England selection once more.

Sources close to the club have confirmed that Bath are actively in the market for an addition to their back three and Arundell, a former pupil of the nearby Beechen Cliff School before he attended Harrow, has been linked with a move to The Rec for some time.

Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, and Conor O’Shea, the executive director of performance rugby at the Rugby Football Union, have stayed in touch with Arundell throughout the latter’s time in France.

Borthwick has awarded only 17 enhanced elite player squad (EPS) contracts, which are worth £150,000 per year to players that will be under the close watch of the England set-up. He has scope to hand out up to 25, giving him room to add individuals to that group.

Arundell moved to Paris after the 2023 World Cup, having been left without a job following the collapse of London Irish months earlier. At that tournament, Arundell plundered five tries in the 71-0 defeat of Chile.

He went on to score a hat-trick against Toulon on his Top 14 debut for Racing and made 19 appearances in league and Champions Cup action over the course of the 2023-24 campaign. Arundell has added eight Top 14 outings this term and also started last Friday’s loss to Sale Sharks. His early release from his Racing contract was first reported earlier this week by RugbyPass.

While Arundell is also comfortable at full-back, the position in which he rose to prominence for London Irish, he has started eight of this season’s games on the wing, coming off the bench in the other.

Arundell burst on to the scene with some stunning performances for England Under-20s in 2022 and rocketed into the senior set-up later that year, scoring a solo try with his first touch in the first Test against Australia. Moving to France put his 10-cap Test career on hold, but he could well revive it at Bath.

Meanwhile, Max Malins is weighing up whether to extend his time at Bristol Bears by another year. The 27-year-old has the option of staying at Ashton Gate for next season, but is thought to have been the subject of interest from France.

Potentially complicating matters is the fact that Malins ruptured his Achilles tendon in training this week in a blow to Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam. Having started the season in excellent form, scooping the Premiership player of the month award for September thanks to four tries in two appearances in the league, he had been poised to make his return from the shoulder injury he sustained in October’s win over Bath.

Malins has won 22 caps for England, but has not featured in a Test match since the Chile thrashing in which Arundell ran riot on the opposite wing.