Five-match ban rules Farrell out of Sarries’ Champions Cup tie

Owen Farrell will miss Saracens’ Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster after being issued with a five-match ban for his dangerous tackle against Wasps on Saturday.

The England captain faced an online disciplinar y hearing over the first red card of his career, which came after an hour of the Gallagher Premiership defeat at Allianz Park.

Farrell was dismissed for a high and reckless tackle on 18-year-old replacement fullback Charlie Atkinson, who was knocked out and will not train for at last two weeks due to concussion protocols.

Farrell ,28, accepted the charge and the panel decided the offence was at the top end of severity, meriting a suspension of ten weeks. That was halved due to mitigating factors.

The ban rules him out of Saracens’ European clash with Leinster on 19 September, their only meaningful game left this season following their relegation from the Premiership for salary cap breaches.

And if the double winners pull off a shock by prevailing in Dublin, they will also be without him for the semi-final a week later as he can only resume playing from 5 October.

Panel chair Mike Ham lin said: “It was accepted that the offending was reckless and not intentional.

“This was a totally unacceptable contact with the neck/ head of Charlie Atkinson as a result of a reckless tackle which had the conse - quences of him being knocked unconscious and sustaining a concussion.

“This resulted in the panel concluding that this was a top end offence with an entry point of ten matches.

“Testimonials provided by [Saracens director of rugby] Mark Mccall, [England head coach] Eddie Jones and the founder sofa charity with which the player works were of the highest quality. The panel concluded that applying the off-field mitigating factors, notwithstanding his suspension four and a half years ago, the player was entitled to a reduction from ten matches to five.”

Upon making the tackle, Farrell, pictured, immediately showed his remorse and apologised to Atkinson. He could be heard telling referee Christophe Ridley “I know this was bad”.

McCall revealed that the Lions star was“incredibly regretful”, adding that “Owen got the tackle wrong, there’s no question about that”.

Despite his good disciplinary record – he was banned for the same offence four years ago in his only previous suspension – he has skated on thin ice by escaping sanction for a string of similarly reckless tackles, most notably for England.