Saints prop Corbisiero closing in on return to action

Alex Corbisiero has not played since featuring in this pre-season friendly against Worcester (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The England prop has yet to play this season due to a series of niggly injuries.

He played once in pre-season, in the game against Worcester Warriors at Franklin’s Gardens, but is now keen to get involved in some competitive action.

Alex Waller has started every game at loosehead for Saints so far, with Ethan Waller providing back-up from the bench.

But Corbisiero, who has made 30 appearances for Northampton since joining from London Irish in the summer of 2013, is close to adding more competition for places.

“I’d like to be out there myself,” said the 27-year-old while working as a summariser for BT Sport during Saints’ 15-3 win against Gloucester at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night.

“It’s been frustrating because I’ve just had a few little setbacks and niggles, minor injuries.

“I was back fit two weeks ago, tweaked my knee in training, but I’m hoping to be back fit in the next week or two.”

Corbisiero was impressed with the way Saints performed against Gloucester as Jim Mallinder’s men racked up their third successive win in all competitions.

And the prop said: “It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, we didn’t get to score the tries we wanted but the four points moves us up the table.

“We’ll see how the results go this weekend but it takes the pressure off us and it gives us a bit of momentum.

“We’ve got three wins in a row now and it was another game with some good physicality and set piece dominance.

“That put us in the right areas of the pitch and we knew once that rain started that it was going to be a kicking fest.

“Neither team was going to play too much rugby, it was just a shame we left some chances out there that would have put it beyond reach, but it was still a comfortable win.”