Saracens flanker Mike Rhodes revealed his relief at returning to Mark McCall’s starting line-up having been injured for most of the season.

The 30-year-old had surgery in his shoulder last summer before tearing his hamstring upon his return in January, so has been waiting patiently on the sidelines.

Now back to full fitness, Rhodes has slotted straight back into the Saracens starting line-up ahead of their final regular game of the season against Gloucester and is raring to go.

“I’m feeling pretty good, it’s great to be back after along lay off,” said Rhodes.

“My body is feeling alright apart from the usual aches and pains, energy-wise I’m feeling very good.

“I think the team is feeling good going into this weekend’s game and hopefully we still have two more games remaining. Going into the semi-final here at home will be great.

“I feel very lucky to have the trust from the coaches, to try and get some game time going into these play-offs is massive and I really appreciate that from their side.

“I just want to get my match fitness back up because that’s the one thing I’m lacking at the moment, and hopefully kick on into these last two.

Saracens will play their home semi-final on Saturday 19th May and will be eager to go into that match with as much momentum as possible, starting with victory at Allianz Park against Gloucester this weekend.

“We just want to set a platform that we can kick on to the semi-final with, you never want to go into a semi-final having had a bad result or bad performance,” said Rhodes.

“So if we put out a good result, do what we plan correctly that always gives you confidence going into a game in play-off week.

“You might have a bit more of a down week or an off week but you can take that confidence going in and work on that and build on that going forward.”