Manu Tuilagi ruled out of England's autumn internationals as Leicester centre's injury hell continues
The Leicester Tigers centre has seen his return from injury cut short after just one match after suffering damage to his meniscus
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Your support makes all the difference.Manu Tuilagi will miss England’s autumn internationals after suffering yet another injury setback, just one game into his latest return.
The Leicester Tigers centre scored a try in last Sunday’s 27-23 defeat by Bath, where he played his first match in eight months after recovering from a knee injury suffered in January, and had his hopes pinned on an England recall for November’s games against Australia, Argentina and Samoa.
But the 26-year-old has suffered a fresh knee injury after damaging his meniscus which will require surgery, sidelining him for around 12 weeks, which will rule him out of the three autumn internationals as well as the start of Leicester’s European Champions Cup campaign.
A Leicester statement on Thursday morning confirmed: “Leicester Tigers centre Manu Tuilagi faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee strain in Sunday’s Aviva Premiership opener.
“Tuilagi recovered from long-term injury in time to start the final warm-up fixture against the Ospreys and then opening game of the campaign against Bath, but he strained the meniscus in his left knee during the match. He will have surgery and recovery time is estimated at 12 weeks.”
The news is a desperate blow to Tuilagi, who has not played for England since March 2016 and has made just three starts in the last four years due to a string of serious injuries.
Having undergone surgery at the start of the year to repair damaged cruciate ligaments, there is relief in the fact that this latest blow is not to the same knee that he previously injured.
“This is not the knee that Manu injured last season and this is not a major injury in the context of what kept him out for the first half of this year,” said Leicester head coach Matt O’Connor.
“Manu has worked really hard with the medical and conditioning teams to come back from long-term injury and was starting to find his feet again on the pitch, but he’s just been very unlucky with this one.
“It was an innocuous bump, a freak incident in the game. On closer inspection there is some damage to the meniscus which needs to be addressed. We look forward to having him back at the end of his recovery period.”
The British and Irish Lions centre has won 26 caps for England, scoring 11 tries in the process, but he would likely have doubled that number had he been fully available for England’s last four Six Nations campaigns, as well as their summer tours and autumn international programmes.
It is also a massive setback for Leicester, who will once again be unable to field their first-choice centre partnership until December at the earliest. The Tigers pay Tuilagi and Australia international Matt Toomua nearly £1m-a-season, yet they have only started together once which came in last weekend’s defeat.
Should the 12-week lay-off prove accurate, Tuilagi could be in contention to return for Leicester’s European Champions Cup clash against Munster on 9 December, although it would require an immediate return to action.
If he does it again he’ll be spending a lot of time in the Midlands
Tuilagi has been in the news for the wrong reasons this season already after being sent home from an England training camp after he and Sale Sharks wing Denny Solomona turned up for a contact session still drunk from a late-night out. The pair left a pub in South-west London at 04:30 in the morning following a lengthy drinking session, and head coach Eddie Jones had no hesitations in banishing them from his squad for the final day’s training in Teddington.
However, Tuilagi was given a second, final chance by Jones following his try-scoring return last weekend when the Australian spoke at the Soccerex convention in Manchester. Jones confirmed that Tuilagi remains in his selection plans if he gets himself fit and finds his form, but this setback will only delay any possible return even further.
“Everyone makes bad mistakes, we’ve all done it,” Jones said of Tuilagi and Solomona. “So we will just assess them over the next period of time and, if they’re eligible for selection...and if their attitude is right, then we will pick them.
“If they’re not, then we won’t pick them. They understand they made a poor choice, the team understand they made a poor choice.”
Jones added that if Tuilagi could not keep his discipline then he will “be spending a lot more time in the Midlands”.
“He’s only done it once with me, the same with Denny. Everybody talks about previous records but he’s only done it once with me. If he does it again he’ll be spending a lot of time in the Midlands.”
Unfortunately for Tuilagi that will prove to be the case, if only for the most heart-breaking of reasons.
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