HIGH performance director Nick Johnston is leaving Worcester Warriors after three years.

Johnston, formerly of Sale Sharks and Northampton Saints, started the season in a dual management role at Warriors with head coach Carl Hogg.

He is believed to have travelled to the Southern Hemisphere in December to source potential new players with head of rugby recruitment Jan McGinity.

But Johnston has not been seen around the club this year.

“Nick is not renewing the optional last two years of his contract and departs on April 1,” said Warriors in a club statement.

“We would like to thank Nick for his hard work at the club and wish him well for the future.”

Johnston was brought in by then director of rugby Dean Ryan as Warriors’ high performance director in December 2013.

He formerly worked at Sale before joining Northampton in 2008 where he spent five seasons with the club, helping Saints to six major finals.

Johnston was put in charge of first team affairs at Worcester alongside Hogg after Ryan quit Sixways last summer.

But the dual management role between Hogg and Johnston was broken up in November after a “review of rugby operations.”

At the time, chief executive Jim O’Toole believed Hogg’s “sole leadership” would give Worcester’s players “clarity” as they approached a crucial stage of the season.

O’Toole said there were no plans to change the coaching staff or bring in a director of rugby.

Johnston then returned to his original role and Hogg brought in former Warriors forwards coach Phil Davies as a coaching consultant.

However, when results failed to improve on the pitch, Hogg asked for help which paved the way for Gary Gold’s arrival from South Africa as director of rugby at the end of January.

Paddy Anson, formerly of Gloucester and Exeter Chiefs, was also been brought in to head up Worcester's strength and conditioning department.

Anson replaced Chris Hart, who has been put on gardening leave by Warriors until his contract expires in the summer.

Earlier this month, Gold claimed a lack of intensity in pre-season had left Warriors “behind the black ball” heading into the new campaign.

Worcester were struck by a wrath of injuries to key players last summer and in the early part of the term as the depleted squad struggled on the field.

In the autumn, Johnston defended the training regime and said there had “not been a lot wrong” with the programmes.

He claimed some of the injuries had been “down to bad luck”.

At the time, Johnston said: “Historically, most clubs are run at 25 per cent deficient in their squad at any point in the season and we have hit points that have been a lot higher than that."

Anson arrived at Sixways in January and said Warriors’ squad could look forward to a “tough pre-season”.

He said: "I believe we have got a tough pre-season ahead because there are always things to work on.

“The players will look forward to that and I am not going to be giving too much away as to the areas I am going to be looking at improving.”