Maro Itoje expected to be fit for start of Six Nations

England have been handed a boost with Maro Itoje expected to be fit for the start of the Six Nations, according to Saracens’ director of rugby Mark McCall, who says the second row does not need surgery on his knee and will likely be back in between “four to eight weeks”.

However, a punishing weekend of Champions Cup action, at least as far as English clubs were concerned, has left Eddie Jones waiting anxiously on a number of other players, with Nathan Hughes and Joe Cokanasiga both picking up knocks.

Jones will be relieved to hear that Itoje’s knee injury is not too bad. The 24 year-old first hurt it at England’s Portugal training camp before the start of the autumn internationals.

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But he played in all four of England's Tests - only missing 10 minutes when he received a yellow card in the victory over South Africa - and also continued to appear for his club. It was against Wasps last weekend that the injury flared up again.

“It’s not clear just how long it’s going to be,” McCall said after watching his team beat Cardiff Blues 51-25 on Sunday to move top of Pool 3. “He’s got a chip in his patella. It will be more than four [weeks] and less than eight, I would say. But it will depend how functional he is. It doesn’t require surgery or anything, so it will depend how the rehab goes and just how functional he is.”

McCall added that he had no issues with the way in which the injury had been handled by England. “There’s always constant communication between England and ourselves,” he said. “We were aware there had been pain in his knee.

“But there’s no issues with that at all. He just got a bang on his knee. But you all saw how well he played in the tests. So there was nothing too sinister about it. Nothing to worry about.

“But after he played for us against Wasps the pain was still there and we thought we’re going to have to have a closer look. So we had a CAT scan done. But he’ll be back in time for the Six Nations.”

Cokanisaga limped off with a leg injury after receiving a heavy blow in the final minutes of Bath’s defeat by Leinster, while Nathan Hughes hurt his hip and pelvis after a heavy tackle by giant Toulouse lock Joe Tekori.

England should have first-choice No 8 Billy Vunipola back in time for the Six Nations, though, with McCall saying he expected the 26-year-old back by the end of the year.