WORCESTER rugby director Dean Ryan has left the Aviva Premiership club, amid recent speculation linking him with the top job at Bath Rugby.

The Warriors said that Ryan “has been released from his contract and will leave his post immediately”, barely two months before the new Premiership season starts.

The former England number eight, 50, has been strongly linked to the job at Bath, which has been vacant since Mike Ford’s departure from the Recreation Ground.

Bath have yet to comment on reports that Kyle Eastmond has left the club after they decided they did not believe he was worth the salary they offered him in December.

Eastmond, capped six times by England, is reportedly set to join Sale Sharks next season, despite it being announced in January that he had signed a new two-year contract at Bath.

Bath have been drawn in a 2016/17 European Rugby Challenge Cup pool alongside newly-promoted West Country rivals Bristol and Welsh opponents Cardiff Blues.

They will also face French side Pau, with first team coach Toby Booth saying: “The fact that we’ve got local derbies against Bristol and Cardiff Blues is an added bonus, but one of the great things about European competition is that it gives us an opportunity to go to places like Pau and test ourselves against different styles of play.’’