Owen Farrell faces a race to save his season after being injured booking Saracens a home Premiership semi-final.
The England captain limped off the Tottenham pitch in distress after a knock to the left ankle on which he had surgery 16 months ago.
Watched by his dad, Grand Slam winning Ireland coach Andy, Farrell had built Sarries a winning lead before going down clutching his foot. He left the field in obvious pain and sympathetic applause from the 55,109 crowd could not mask the concern around the stadium.
Saracens boss Mark McCall said: “Owen has aggravated the ankle he aggravated with England. We’ll have to see what the problem is. To what degree he’s aggravated it.”
Farrell’s left ankle had only just recovered from the Grade One ligament damage he suffered in England’s record home defeat by France.
He shook that off to lead his country in Ireland but now faces another battle against time to make Saracens last-16 Champions Cup clash at home to Ospreys a week today.
McCall insists his fly-half will only return to action when he is 100 per cent.
“Whether or not it’s still a Grade One we’ll see,” he said. “If it’s more than that, he won’t play. We want to make a good decision. We certainly won’t play him if he’s not right.”
Farrell’s injury took the shine off a hugely impressive display which saw five tries stuck on Harlequins.
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All the scores came with Farrell on the pitch and McCall raved about his skipper’s contribution on such a big day for the club.
“All the good stuff in attack he was at the centre of,” said McCall. “And he made some really great interventions in defence.”
Quins had been first out of the traps, England No.8 Alex Dombrandt crashing over in only the second minute.
Saracens struck back immediately with centres Alex Lozowski and Nick Tompkins helping themselves to really smart tries.
And when Andy Christie bagged a third on half-time, with assists from Mako and man of the match Billy Vunipola, the contest looked over.
But Cadan Murley sparked Quins with two superb finishes in the third quarter and it needed Sean Maitland and Maro Itoje to put the game to bed shortly before Farrell’s abrupt departure.
With his skipper gone Billy Vunipola raised his performance to an even higher level - reminding England of the power game they chose to ignore in the Six Nations.
“Billy is in great physical condition at the minute, as good as I have seen him to be honest,” said McCall. "He had a superb match.
“I must say, the way he dealt with the disappointment of not being in the Six Nations squad was unbelievable. I couldn't speak more highly of how he was during that period. He knows he has to do his talking on the field.”
SARACENS - Tries: Lozowski, Tompkins, Christie, Maitland, Itoje. Cons: Farrell 4. Pen: Farrell.
QUINS - Tries: Dombrandt, Murley 2, Marchant. Cons: Smith 2.