WORCESTER Warriors will be boosted for Saturday’s visit of Northampton Saints by the return to action of key players Euan Murray and Andy Goode.

Tighthead Murray has been released from Scotland’s Six Nations squad to link up with his Worcester team-mates, while fly-half Goode has recovered from the illness that forced him out of the Bath game at the 11th hour.

However, the good news of the duo’s return for this weekend’s Aviva Premiership clash (3pm) has been tempered by the revelation that influential second row Chris Jones will be out for more than a month with a shoulder injury.

The crocked Jones will join the likes of Semisi Taulava and Chris Pennell on the injury list, but veteran scrum-half Shaun Perry is closing on a return to action.

Warriors head coach Richard Hill said: “Andy has recovered now and we’ve also got Euan back from Scotland, which is good, but he also had the bug.

“He’s not been too well and has lost a couple of kilos, but we’ll get him back up to strength for the weekend.”

Hill added: “I don’t think Chris will be back for this batch of league matches. We then have a couple of weeks break before we go into the final five matches. Hopefully, he’ll be available for those last five games.

“He put in a big tackle in the Amlin Challenge Cup game against Gernika and he picked up a stinger to his shoulder, which has knocked a nerve and that can sometimes take a little while to recover.”