WORCESTER Warriors lock Darren Barry has been ruled out for their final Aviva Premiership match against defending champions Saracens at Sixways on Saturday (3.30pm).

The former Cornish Pirates second row damaged his ankle in last weekend’s 31-17 defeat against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.

Prop Val Rapava Ruskin is also a doubt after hobbling off with an ankle problem against Tigers.

And Warriors are unlikely to risk experienced centre Wynand Olivier who is recovering from a pulled hamstring.

Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan is expecting “a fully-loaded” Saracens and says he will be selecting his “most competitive” side for the fixture.

Stalwart centre Alex Grove, who is leaving Warriors after 10 years and 152 first-team appearances, is “under consideration” for selection, according to Ryan.

“We’ve lost Darren Barry for the season and he needs to get some work done on his shoulder and now his ankle,” said Ryan.

“We lost Val Ruskin which was a huge loss in the Tigers game.

"We will see how late we can leave it before making a decision on Val so we intend to give him a chance to get back on to the field.

“Wynand is pretty close to a return. He’s probably at full running now and we wil have to make an informed decision on him.”

With Barry ruled out, Tevita Cavubati is set to partner Donncha O'Callaghan in the second row with the departing Dan Sanderson on the bench.

Warriors will finish 10th in the Premiership and have lost their last three matches against high-flying Exeter Chiefs, Wasps and Leicester.

But influential scrum-half Francois Hougaard is missing after linking up with the South African sevens squad and will be replaced in the Worcester starting line-up by Luke Baldwin.

“Francois has done a tremendous job and we’re glad we’ll get to see him again next season,” said Ryan.

“We always knew he would be missing our last Premiership game because he was on loan from the sevens so it was never a continuous deal.”

Warriors were soundly beaten 48-18 by Saracens at the end of November with late tries from Joe Rees and skipper Gerrit-Jan van Velze putting some gloss on the final scoreline.

And Ryan believes Saracens will field a strong side against Worcester, despite the European Champions Cup final and the Premiership play-off semi-finals awaiting them.

“I will be very surprised if they don’t field their strongest side,” said Ryan.

“They rested a few last weekend and it’s common knowledge they’ve been on a team bonding trip.

"You could quite clearly see they weren’t on the money for the first 40 minutes against Newcastle and I don’t expect that to happen again.

"I expect them to be fully-loaded ready for the European Champions Cup final the week after they come to us."

Ryan added: “We want to be competitive so we will select the side we think is the most competitive side.

“Grove is under consideration as being one of the most competitive players - so there’s no issues around that.”