Will Fraser admits Saracens season ended up being a "massive anticlimax" after the Men in Black lost a second semi-final in as many weeks to Northampton Saints - a match Fraser was just hours away from playing in.

Sarries suffered a shock defeat to Saints in the Premiership's last four, having already lost to Toulon in the Heineken Cup, and Fraser, who will miss the start of next season with a shoulder injury, says it was a miserable way to end the season.

“From a personal point of view and a selfish point of view it’s been a good season but for us as a team it's been a massive anticlimax really," he said.

“You can lose on any day but to lose to Northampton in the manner we did was the most disappointing thing.

“It was one of our worst performances of the season so to do that in a semi-final was very disappointing for everyone.

“But we’ve had some great memories across the year on and off the pitch, it’s just a shame we couldn’t convert one of those semis into a final or a trophy.”

Fraser added: “We see ourselves as one of the top sides in the country now and we want to be one of the top sides in Europe and the only way to do that is by reaching these semi-finals and finals.

“The ambition of the club is huge and it’s a testament to how far the club has come in the last four years that we can be disappointed despite achieving some great things this season.” 

Stop-gap procedures that involved boosting the surrounding muscles saw Fraser named on the teamsheet to face Northampton.

On the morning of the game however, Fraser was forced to pull out with what he later found out was a grade three tear in his tricep muscle, a setback linked to the original injury.

“We had a five week window where we tried to get everything around the injury at maximum operating potential," he explained.

“I couldn’t use the injured muscle so we tried to get everything around it to compensate and I did really well, I got through my fitness tests on the Friday but then I woke up on Saturday morning with a whopper of a bruise on the inside of my arm.

“I went to the physio and got a scan as a precaution and it turned out I had a grade three tear in my tricep muscle which unfortunately then ruled me out. 

“I probably had a tear in there from the original injury and we were overloading my tricep massively to compensate for my lat so I think bit by bit the tear was getting bigger and bigger."

Fraser underwent a successful operation last Friday but it is a source of frustration that he’s been forced back to the treatment table after overcoming an injury-plagued two years between 2009 and 2011.

“After quite a bad injury history I’ve been able to play the whole year without injury apart from a dead leg so I was really happy with that,” he said.

“Obviously to get an injury at the time I did was massively frustrating but in the same vein you could easily argue that had I got this injury halfway through the year I wouldn’t have been in the place I am in terms of knocking on the door for England and being able to play Saxons.”

He added: “If you’d told me this time last year I’d play Saxons and I’d be training with England in the Six Nations and I’d be in with a shout of going on tour I would have bitten both your arms off.”