FORMER chief executive of Worcester Warriors, Jim O'Toole, is to lead a consortium involving American investment to try and buy Worcester Warriors.

O'Toole first joined Worcester in 2015, having previously worked at London Irish, before departing in 2017.

Since then he has worked as a sports consultant, based in the United Kingdom, but working with some companies abroad.

Speaking to Radio 4 on Wednesday morning, he explained how the interest in the club came about.

"There was an approach from some local businessmen here in Worcester to see if there was anything we could do to save the club," he said.

"Which tied in nicely with some work I was doing with a former colleague from London Irish, James Sanford (CEO of Atlas Sports tech), we were advising an American company on some plans to launch a service they are launching in the UK.

"Rugby was the sport marketing platform and we started discussing the current rugby union landscape, premiership rugby was the answer to it."

O'Toole is not the one who will be buying the club, he is there to facilitate the deal and the finance will be coming from the USA, but there is an urgency about this offer.

"There is American finance behind this deal," he added.

"The finance will be from America but there will be local involvement.

"There is an urgent deadline coming up for the club, which is payroll next week for August.

"In an ideal world, we will be able to conclude this agreement before then to safeguard the August payroll and to prevent the players becoming free agents if their salaries haven't been paid.

"I will know more after nine o'clock this morning when I have had a conversation with my American clients."

There had been concerns this week that the club would enter administration and that remains on the table, but O'Toole confirmed there were other interested parties who wish to offer a deal for the club.

"There are other people in the frame and hopefully one of us will be successful to save this club because I can't quite imagine Worcester without a professional rugby club," he added.

"So we would clearly like to succeed or at least one of us does to save this club."

And if they are successful, the former chief executive is confident the new ownership would "take the club to the next stage".

"The ownership will come in and put a board in place with smart and relevant qualified people to take this club to the next stage," said O'Toole.

"Worcester is full of potential. There are comercial opportunities around the land and the stadium.

"It needs doing, someone needs to step up and do it because this rugby club is too important for this city."