Oxford University’s England Under 20 flanker Jamie Gibson looks like missing the Varsity Match for a second year running.

The highly-rated London Irish player was ruled out of the 2009 clash due to injury and this year is recovering from a broken leg sustained in pre-season with the Premiership club.

Gibson has just resumed training, but the Nomura Varsity Match on December 9 is likely to prove too soon for the 20-year-old.

With Oxford possessing few players of 20-year-old Gibson’s class, the news comes as a big blow.

Head coach Murray Henderson said: “London Irish are preventing him from playing and going for full-contact training.

“He is not allowed to play at the moment, but we have not written the whole thing off yet.

“Injuries can occur, which might give him a chance.”

London Irish spokesman Tracey Goodyear confirmed Gibson has only had a week back in training.

She said: “He needs to do one to two more weeks of training before he can play.

“It is about the player’s welfare and making sure they are fit.”

There was better news for the Dark Blues with likely Varsity Match starter Sean Morris, who has been out injured since October 18, undergoing fitness training before Monday’s clash with Saracens.

But there was little else to cheer in a 55-0 defeat that will clearly have dented players’ confidence.

Henderson said: “We have had a long chat about defence.

“Playing like that, we are just setting ourselves up to fail.

“We have to stay positive. It is the nature of the beast when you face sides like that.

“A front row weighing 300kg will always find it tough against one that weights 400kg.

“Our line-out was pretty disappointing because we are usually pretty strong there.

“I thought our collisions were positive because we kept coming back to face them [Saracens].”

Henderson added: “If you put Charlie Marr and Nick Haydon behind the Saracens pack, Nick would play like he could play for Australia and Charlie like he could play for England.”

Oxford host Northampton Saints on Monday night in their final pre-Varsity fixture.

Henderson said: “I am going to stress to Northampton, bring your academy down because we can’t have another 50-pointer.

“We can still do it. We need to remember what we did well against Wasps and Cardiff.”