Saints facing five weeks on the sidelines as Gallagher Premiership action is suspended until late April

European Professional Club Rugby has already confirmed that the Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup quarter-finals, scheduled for April 2-4, have been postponed.

That means Saints' trip to take on Exeter Chiefs in the last eight of the Champions Cup is definitely off.

And now the Gallagher Premiership have confirmed there will be no league games played for at least five weeks due to the Covid-19 crisis.

A statement on the Gallagher Premiership website reads: "We are sorry to tell our fans that we will be postponing our season for five weeks, in line with Monday's advice of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which confirmed that the Government would no longer support mass gatherings.

"The safety of our fans, players and staff is our first priority, and we would like to wish all of those who are affected our heartfelt best wishes and a very speedy recovery.

"We’ll continue to work closely with DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) and Public Health England, and to follow the advice of medical experts, and work with our clubs to help them to support their own wider communities at this time.

"We are working together with our broadcast partner BT Sport to create exclusive rugby content in the coming weeks. More news on that to follow."

The decision means that Saints' Premiership games with Wasps (March 21), London Irish (March 28), Bath (April 10) and Harlequins (April 17) are all postponed, as well as the European date with Exeter.

The Pro14 and Top 14 leagues were suspended indefinitely last week.

There are nine rounds of Premiership matches remaining before the scheduled semi-finals and final in June.

Exeter lead the table by five points after 13 rounds of fixtures, with the Saints in fourth place in the table.

The decision to suspend action followed a meeting of the league's Rugby Committee.