Saracens 31-17 Harlequins
O'Shea optimistic on Brown injury
ESPN Staff
May 17, 2014
Mike Brown receives treatment for his injury © Getty Images
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Harlequins' Conor O'Shea is hopeful Mike Brown will be fit for England duty after he limped off during their Aviva Premiership semi-final loss to Saracens.

Brown picked up a hamstring injury midway through the second-half and with England already without Alex Goode and Ben Foden for their first Test against the All Blacks on June 7, Stuart Lancaster will be hoping Brown is fit for international duty.

"Hopefully, it is just a little twinge," O'Shea said. "It was hot out there, and the surface is different to what we are used to playing on. It's a twinge, I hope, nothing more, but we will see after the next couple of days. He has got a few weeks until that first Test in New Zealand. Hopefully, he is alright."

The casualty list was not just restricted to Harlequins as Saracens will wait on Steve Borthwick's fitness after he picked up a shoulder injury. They will now have two finals before the end of May and with Borthwick retiring at the end of the season, Sarries boss Mark McCall is hopeful he will be fit for Toulon on Satuday.

"We hope he is okay. A career as wonderful as his doesn't deserve to finish today. It deserves to finish in two weeks' time. There is definitely concern about him. We will know more in the next 48 hours."

McCall revelled in his team's end-of-season exploits, offering a comparison with last season when Saracens lost a home Premiership play-off to Northampton and made a Heineken semi-final exit against Toulon.

"The squad is really confident at the moment," McCall said. "The players front-up every single week. We've got some demons from the past in these semi-finals - against Toulon last season and Northampton here. I think we have come a long way as a team and a squad in the last 12 months.

"Our season was over this time 12 months ago. It was finished, we had nothing left to do, and we just had regrets. We've had five years of building to this point. It hasn't all gone smoothly - there have been some big setbacks along the way - but we have got players who are more mature and are better than they were a couple of years ago. It's good to be part of."

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