Report - Sam Burgess given time off by Bath to consider rugby league return

Burgess has not played for Bath since England made a World Cup pool stage exit earlier this month.

Although it is understood he is due to resume training with the Aviva Premiership club next Monday, a possible league return has been mooted.

No-one at Bath was available to comment.

Reports in Australia have suggested that 26-year-old Burgess could return to South Sydney Rabbitohs, the club he helped to last year's NRL title before switching codes and officially joining Bath a year ago.

Despite his limited union experience, Burgess was then picked for England's World Cup squad - but as a centre, rather than the flanker role he filled for Bath during the latter stages of last season, culminating in a Premiership final appearance against Saracens at Twickenham.

He made his union Test debut against France in August, but his World Cup campaign did not get off the ground as England made a pool stage exit and the Yorkshireman struggled for form.

However, at the start of the month his club side were confident he would continue in union.

"The last conversation I had with him, he was going to extend his contract with us and he wanted to go for the next World Cup," head coach Mike Ford was quoted as saying by the Times.

"He is going to play for us for the next few years. He loves rugby union, he is settled in Bath and he knows he is a six."

Burgess's brother, Tom, seemed to echo those sentiments.

"[A return] is what everyone wants in league but at the end of the day it's his decision and he'll make the decision based on how he's feeling," Tom said. "He's signed up for two more years at Bath so that's it."