Sam Warburton boosted the British and Irish Lions on Monday declaring himself fit and ready to captain them on June’s daunting tour of New Zealand which includes a three-Test series with the world champions.
The 28-year-old Welsh backrow forward — who coach Warren Gatland named as skipper after his successful captaincy in the series win over Australia four years ago — said he had fully recovered from a knee injury that laid him low in early April.
“I am fully fit, which is good,” said Warburton, speaking at the Lions training base in Kildare, Ireland.
“Last week in the camp in Wales I was pretty much doing everything apart from just the last little bit of contact stuff.
“But today (Monday) I trained fully. We did full contact, and I was absolutely fine. That’s all the boxes ticked, and now I can crack on.”
Warburton, who is only the second player to captain the Lions twice — the other being England’s 2003 World Cup winning skipper Martin Johnson (1997/2001), said he was saddened that England star No8 Billy Vunipola would not be able to tour having been ruled out with a shoulder injury on Sunday.
“Billy was one of the guys I was really looking forward to playing with, who I hadn’t played alongside before,” said 76-times capped Warburton.
“He has been a massive player for Saracens. It is a big loss for us, but James (Haskell) coming in — I think only Rory Best and Alun Wyn Jones have got more caps than him in the squad — means we are very lucky.