Saracens owner Nigel Wray has business arrangements with England forward Maro Itoje, as well as with former players Alistair Hargreaves and Chris Wyles, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

It was reported earlier this week that Wray has gone into business with England internationals Owen Farrell, Billy and Mako Vunipola and Richard Wigglesworth. It prompted claims over whether the English champions have broken Premiership Rugby’s salary cap rules. Yet Wray’s partnerships with players went further than that.

According to records from Companies House, a firm called MN Property Solutions Limited was launched in 2016 in which Wray and Itoje are the sole shareholders. Through a separate company, Oghene Holdings Limited, Itoje owns two-thirds of the shares and Wray the remainder. Accounts filed in June 2018 show MN Property Solutions, for which Itoje is sole director, has £800,192 of assets while owing net liabilities of £286,238.

Hargreaves and Wyles have both now retired but were active Saracens players when they launched a craft beer company which brews Wolfpack Lager in 2014. Companies House lists Wray as a person with significant control.

In response, Saracens said they had nothing to add to their previous statement, which insisted all these arrangements were above aboard and that they were previously ­declared to Andrew Rogers, Premiership Rugby’s salary cap manager. Wray, who has a fortune of £315 million and took sole ownership of Saracens last year, frequently says that he looks for good people to invest in, which is one explanation for these partnerships.