Worcester Warriors captain Jonathan Thomas has admitted that this has been the "most difficult" season of his career.

The Warriors, who face Gloucester Rugby in the final game of the campaign later today, had their relegation from the Aviva Premiership confirmed following the 44-20 defeat against leaders Saracens last weekend.

"Without a doubt it's the most difficult season I've had as a rugby player," Thomas is quoted as saying by Premiership Rugby. "I'm not hiding from how disappointed we are and how disappointed I am.

"At the start of the season there was a lot of good feeling in the camp and obviously we wanted to do well. We had big ambitions to achieve things so it was very disappointing to have gone through the season that we've had and it's not something that I want to go through again.

"We've been bottom of the league all season and the idea of relegation was not something that was new to us. But in sport, as a competitor, you always live in hope that you're going to stay up and I firmly believed that we could because our performances improved over the last couple of months."

Thomas joined the club from Ospreys at the beginning of the season.