Manu Tuilagi ruled out of England’s Autumn Nations Cup and Six Nations campaigns due to torn Achilles

England will be without influential centre Manu Tuilagi for the upcoming Autumn Nations Cup and next year’s Six Nations campaign as the Sale Sharks back requires surgery on a torn Achilles tendon.

The 29-year-old will be sidelined for around six months after injuring his left Achilles during a tackle from Northampton Saints fly-half Dan Biggar during Tuesday night’s Premiership clash at Franklin’s gardens.

Sale’s director of rugby Steve Diamond confirmed the blow on Thursday, with the club unable to call on Tuilagi for their decisive final Premiership round this weekend as they battle Wasps, Bath and Bristol Bears for a place in the play-offs.

“Hopefully the surgery will be next week,” Diamond said. “It's a torn Achilles. He'll be out for six months. It's brutal what we're playing at the minute.” Diamond has spoken of his pride before kick-off of Sale managing to select Tuilagi for their nine Premiership games since they signed the centre from Leicester Tigers, following 11 injury-disrupted years at Welford Road. 

“Dan Biggar fell on him, so it was an accident. These things happen,” Diamond added. “I think it might have been of a jinx me saying before the game that we've got nine out of nine games out of him and boom, that happens. So I'll keep my trap shut in future. 

“Manu will be a loss to England and Sale. Rather selfishly, after this game and the play-offs we'll probably wouldn't have seen Manu until April with the England commitments and EPS rest periods.”

Tuilagi has proven a key figure in Eddie Jones’s England plans over the course of the last 18 months since overcoming lengthy injury troubles, which saw him limited to one appearance over four and a half years. The Samoan-born centre featured throughout England’s run to the Rugby World Cup final last autumn, having scored seven tries in 14 starts since the start of 2019.

Jones is due to announce a preliminary squad on Monday for their outstanding Six Nations clash with Italy as well as the warm-up affair against the Barbarians, before a four-game campaign in the Autumn Nations Cup that will replace the regular mid-season internationals across November and December.

The Australian will be unable to call on Tuilagi though, with the centre due to undergo surgery next week and expected to be sidelined for as many as six months, which would also see him miss the entire 2021 Six Nations campaign that gets underway at the start of February.

It could also have a major impact on his chances of making Warren Gatland’s squad for the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa, which will depart for the southern hemisphere in July next year. Tuilagi missed the 2017 tour of New Zealand due to injury and made just one test appearance in the 2013 instalment against Australia.

His absence could see Jones revert to the George Ford-Owen Farrell midfield partnership that he has utilised frequently throughout his five years in charge of the national side, with Exeter Chiefs’ Henry Slade the frontrunner to join them in the backs division. Harlequins’ Joe Marchant, Bath’s Jonathan Joseph, Exeter’s Ollie Devoto and Northampton’s Fraser Dingwall were also in the running before the Six Nations was prematurely halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.