Clark to leave Saints at end of season

And the flanker’s likely destination appears to be Aviva Premiership and Champions Cup holders Saracens.

Clark, who is currently sidelined with a knee injury sustained in the defeat to Leinster in Dublin last month, has made 142 appearances for Saints, scoring 50 points in the process.

He arrived from Leeds Carnegie, now known as Yorkshire Carnegie, in the summer of 2010 and went on to help Saints reach the Heineken Cup final in the season that followed.

Clark and Co were eventually beaten by Leinster in the showpiece and also lost in the Premiership semi-finals, to Leicester Tigers.

But Clark was named young player of the season and he was a key man as the club won the Aviva Premiership and Amlin Challenge Cup in 2014.

He swept the board at the end-of-season awards dinner in the following campaign, being crowned players’ and supporters’ player of the year after a brilliant season.

But he missed the entirety of the 2015/16 season after suffering a shoulder injury in the pre-season defeat at Wasps.

He returned to action during this campaign, but was banned for three weeks for an incident involving Donncha O’Callaghan at Worcester in November.

And the 27-year-old, who was also banned for 32 weeks earlier in his Saints career, for hyper-extending the elbow of hooker Rob Hawkins in the 2012 Anglo-Welsh Cup final defeat to Leicester, has recently been out injured.

Saints are well covered in the back row, with Tom Wood, Teimana Harrison and Jamie Gibson the preferred flankers in recent weeks.

And with Ben Nutley and Lewis Ludlam continuing to press for starts, Clark’s move won’t leave Jim Mallinder’s men short.