De Beer hit by injury blow

De Beer has been beset by injury woes

Saracens fly-half Jannie de Beer will miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury.

The former Springbok international has returned to South Africa to undergo knee reconstruction surgery.

He initially picked up the injury during a training session in January and has failed to fully recover.

The length of his absence has not yet been confirmed, although he is not expected to return to club action before the beginning of next year.

A spokesman for Saracens said: "A training ground incident caused a previous knee reconstruction to rupture which left Jannie's lateral knee ligaments severely stretched.

"After an initial attempt to manage the injury it has now been decided that surgery is the only option and Jannie returned to South Africa last week for an operation."

Jannie is a key player and his departure and that of Francois Pienaar is difficult to overcome

Abdel Benazzi

De Beer has not played for Saracens since their 48-7 defeat by Leicester on 9 February.

And his career in England to date has been blighted by a series of injury problems.

Club captain Abdel Benazzi said on Tuesday that De Beer's absence for the remainder of the season would be a massive blow in their bid to avoid relegation.

They are currently just five points off the bottom of the table and have just six games remaining in their Premiership campaign, four of those away from home.

And Benazzi told BBC Sport Online: "Jannie is a key player and his departure and that of Francois Pienaar (who earlier stepped down from his coaching role) is difficult to overcome.

"But we showed at the weekend (in the 33-11 defeat of Bath) that we can win without Jannie.

"We have a good replacement in Luke Smith and hopefully he can steer us through to the end of the season and then we can build from the start of next season."

De Beer's absence for the rest of the year is the latest in a long line of lengthy injury setbacks at the north London club.

French fly-half Thomas Castaignede has missed 45 games for the club since rupturing his Achilles in November 2000.

He has only recently returned to light training.