Alex Lewington is the Premiership's second most prolific try-scorer so far this season, with seven in eight games

A u-turn from football, a roadblock in Leicester, a diversion to the Championship and an injury breakdown - Alex Lewington grins when he says his rugby union journey has been "weird".

While the winger is yet to reach his final destination, nine tries in his first 12 appearances for English champions Saracens earned him his first start in the Heineken Champions Cup - Europe's top club competition - on Sunday.

For 27-year-old Lewington, the only uncapped starter in Saracens' backline against Cardiff Blues, it is a milestone worth marking.

"I'm not under any false pretences about how lucky I am to be here," he told BBC Sport.

"I've had a few diversions and it's been a bit of weird journey, I suppose."

Lewington started his sporting life as a footballer in Notts County's academy - he was a frustrated forward playing as a defender and was soon to be disenfranchised with the game.

The break that would define him is not the sort anyone usually celebrates, as his time with hometown club Notts came to an end as a 14-year-old in 2006 after the then-financially troubled side axed its centre of excellence.

"The academy closed, so all the players were free to do what they wanted," Lewington said.

"I had some calls from Nottingham Forest and Derby to go on trial there, but at the time I started to really enjoy rugby and all my friends from Nottingham High School were just playing rugby and not football. I think I'd fallen out of love with it."

'I was upset'

Lewington has made three European Champions Cup appearances, making one start and scoring one try

For whatever future football promised, Lewington swapped it for "fun with mates". A career in rugby union was not his ambition.

And yet, recognition soon followed with a county call-up, then a trial with his nearest Premiership club Leicester Tigers.

He earned a place in Tigers' academy and went on to sign as a professional but never made a Premiership appearance, with his experiences confined to cup and A league competitions and loan stints in the Championship with Nottingham.

"At one point, I worked out I was the 11th-choice winger there," said Lewington, who was ironically playing second-tier rugby at Meadow Lane, the home of Notts County.

"I wasn't convinced I was going to make it with them or be a rugby player. It was very competitive at Leicester at the time, they had unbelievable players."

The disappointment of being dropped for the LV= Cup final in 2012, having featured at every stage before that, prompted Lewington to search out opportunities beyond Welford Road.

"I had been thinking I was making good progress and that happened, I was upset," he said.

'My career is about to take off'

Alex Lewington was out for nine months after injuring himself against South Africa and having a knee reconstruction

While unproven in the top flight, he was offered a three-year deal at London Irish and took it. Even then, he was not convinced he could make a career of it.

"I moved to London thinking 'if I don't make it by the end of the three years, I'd have got through university debt free and I can do what I want at that point'," he said.

"At Irish I arrived as the fifth-choice back three player, so it was an improvement."

In his first campaign with the Exiles in 2013-14, Lewington says he "picked up a lot of information", scoring two tries in 17 league games.

His second was more dazzling, scoring 12 tries - with his first hat-trick coming against Sarries - and earning England recognition with a call-up to play the Barbarians.

Disappointment and despair defined the following season, with the Exiles relegated from the Premiership and Lewington suffering a serious knee injury on debut for the England Saxons on their tour of South Africa.

"I thought 'my career is finally about to take off' and then we obviously got relegated - that was the worst thing," said Lewington, who says playing for England remains his number one personal goal.

"Doing the knee was awful as well, but at least I did it that year. That season was lost to me anyway, even if I was with a Premiership side I was out until March. At least I was with a group of really good mates and we could win something."

And they did, winning promotion back to the top tier, but relegation again followed just 12 months later.

Lewington was "desperate" to keep Irish up, with long-time friends committed to the club and having previously gone through the "heartbreak" of seeing staff lose their job because of relegation.

But he also knew it was time to move on.

"I felt I'd plateaued since I came back from my injury and I really wanted to kick on to the next level and move somewhere that, even if I wasn't playing every single week, I knew I would be a better player," he said.

'You have to take your chances'

Alex Lewington has won more Premiership games with Saracens in the opening nine games of the season than he did with London Irish in his previous two campaigns

"I got some good advice from [former director of rugby] Nick Kennedy, after he also parted ways with London Irish, he said to me that 'I need to go in there and think of myself as the starter, even if you are not going to be'.

"I'm a relative nobody compared to some lads in this squad, but the way training is here, it is so competitive every day and everyone has the chance to show what they can do."

On his debut, he did exactly that with two tries - his first served up by England fly-half Owen Farrell - after coming off the bench as an injury replacement for Scotland winger Sean Maitland.

"If someone had said I'd be in this position at this stage, I'd have bitten their hand off... I'd would have robbed that hand right off," Lewington said.

"My appearances so far have been circumstantial with a few injuries and stuff like that, but you have to take your chances.

"I've had a long journey to get to this point, and you see other people get their opportunities very early on in their career, so now that I'm here I'm definitely not willing to give it up."