Maro Itoje feared he had missed out on British and Irish Lions selection amid the noise generated by his Saracens team-mates cheering Jamie George's inclusion.

The English and European champions' entire squad gathered in front of the TV at their St Albans training base to watch the names of those who will travel to New Zealand being announced live last month.

The club supplies six of the 41 chosen by Warren Gatland but, following the roar that greeted George's inclusion ahead of England captain Dylan Hartley, Itoje was afraid that his own name had not been read out.

"What happened was... obviously I and G are near to each other in the alphabet," Itoje said.

"When we heard Jamie's name read out, everyone was screaming, so we missed the player who was next which was Iain Henderson. I didn't hear that and I was thinking, 'Guys, shut up, I don't want to miss it'.

"If I'm in, I need to know - I don't want to be worried and have to check it back. In my head I was like, 'Guys, be quiet'.

"There was a second when I thought I had missed out. I missed the next name as well with the cheering that came after mine."

Itoje is the youngest of the 2017 Lions, meaning the task of looking after squad mascot - Bil the Lion - falls to him.

The 2009 trip to South Africa, which ended in a 2-1 series defeat, was the first tour the 22-year-old England lock followed in depth, having only started playing rugby in 2006.

"To be picked was unbelievable - I was extremely honoured," he said.

"To have the opportunity to be part of the tour is incredible and something you aspire to do as a child - now I have the opportunity to do so, I feel really privileged."

Along with most of Saracens' Lions contingent, Itoje will be rested for Saturday's trip to Coventry in the climax to the regular season against leaders Wasps.

The prize for the winner at the Ricoh Arena is a guaranteed home semi-final in the Aviva Premiership play-offs, but director of rugby Mark McCall must use his resources carefully knowing seven days later Clermont await in the final of the Champions Cup.

It was a near full-strength team that laboured to a 27-9 victory over relegation Bristol last weekend, but Itoje insists Saracens' worst performance of the season was a only a blip.

"With the best will in the world, at times the reality of sport is that you have off days every now and again," Itoje said.

"It's clear that the Bristol match was an off day for us. If that was our performance every week then we'd be worried.

"The good thing about this club is that we're honest about it. We haven't just ignored it - we've addressed it and now we move on.

"We spoke about the game, we spoke about where we could improve, where we weren't good enough.

"We'll still be fielding a strong team against Wasps. This is a home semi-final decider and ideally we want a home match.

"If we don't, it's not the end of the world because we've done it before, but in an ideal world we'd like to get one."