Sale have confirmed that they have been unable to hang on to Charlie Hodgson and that the England squad fly-half will join Saracens in the summer after a decade with the Cheshire side.

Hodgson's relationship with Sale deteriorated when they hired Mike Brewer as coach – the new man publicly dressing down the fly-half after his first game back from injury – and even though the former All Black has now been replaced by Pete Anglesea, Hodgson is adamant that he will stand by the deal worked out with the southern club.

It is bad news for Anglesea, who had hoped that he might hang on to both Hodgson and Andrew Sheridan, believed to be heading along the well-trodden route from Sale to Toulon. What it does for relations at Saracens is another matter.

This time last year Alex Goode was seen as an England fly-half in waiting, but so far this season he has been usurped by Owen Farrell, the 19-year-old son of Andy, who moves up in the Saracens coaching rankings when Brendan Venter stops being director of rugby today.

With Brad Barritt, another England candidate already in place, the queue for midfield places at the club is starting to stretch around the block.

Those citing the Irish system as perfect for producing Test and Heineken Cup sides might like to think again after 40% of professional rugby players polled by the the players' union said they had felt pressurised into playing while injured. Nearly a quarter also said they were unhappy with the surgeon or specialist to whom they had been referred and 19.1% said they had been pressurised to stay on the field despite suffering from concussion.

The Irish Rugby Union Players Association polled 75% of its 150 members on international, provincial or development contracts after revelations that the careers of two Leinster hookers, Bernard Jackman and John Fogarty might have been come to a premature ends.

"The most striking area where there were problems, which I had been receiving calls on anecdotally throughout last season, was the medical area, and the drop in standard of care that the players felt there had been," said the former Ireland international Niall Woods, now the players' union chief executive.

"What I had been hearing anecdotally from players calling me was that players were getting pressured to play while injured. Whilst on the one hand players will always play with some form of injury, it was more [a case of] serious injury, and the most worrying part was who was responsible for the pressure being put on them to play."