London — England remain hopeful that Manu Tuilagi could yet feature in this season’s Six Nations after the centre’s latest setback in an injury-blighted career ruled him out of Saturday’s match against Wales.
Just hours after England coach Eddie Jones announced Thursday he was recalling Tuilagi to his starting XV, the Sale star suffered a strain to the same hamstring he tore in a victory over world champions South Africa in November.
Jones now intends to name his revised team on Saturday.
Tuilagi has not been ruled out of England’s matches in the final two rounds, against Ireland and France.
But given the 30-year-old’s injury history — he has missed 79 Tests since his England debut in 2011 — few would be surprised if he endured another extended spell on the sidelines.
“Manu had a slight hamstring strain at training on Thursday, so he’s left camp and is at home,” said England forwards coach Richard Cockerill on Friday.
“It’s not too serious as far as we know and hopefully he’ll be back soon. Manu is in pretty good spirits. Unfortunately this is part of professional sport.
“Manu’s still got a smile on his face and is optimistic that he’ll be back playing for club and country pretty soon.
“On that front it’s pretty positive but obviously we’re disappointed for him personally, and it’s disappointing for the team as he’d have been an important part of the squad.”
‘Fantastic Youngs’
Former Leicester boss Cockerill knows Tuilagi from their time together at the Tigers, where he also coached Ben Youngs.
The scrum-half will become England’s outright most-capped men’s player of all time if he comes off the bench to make a 115th appearance against Wales.
“Firstly, he’s a fantastic fella,” said Cockerill of Youngs.
“To play the amount of games he has done for Leicester, but also to stay in the game and play at the top, and almost reinvent himself as a player is pretty unbelievable and remarkable.”
Both England and reigning champions Wales need to win on Saturday if they are to maintain a title bid having already lost one game each this Six Nations.
“If we want to have any opportunity to win the Championship, we need to win all three (remaining) games,” said Cockerill.
“They (Wales) have got a big pack. We’re always going to want to have a keen physical contest at the set piece. It will potentially be a deciding factor in how the game turns out.”
AFP
