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Six Nations statement: Tom Curry 'Tunnelgate' incident
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England centre Henry Slade's preseason curtailed by surgery
By Josh Raisey
England centre Henry Slade has undergone an operation following their drawn series with the All Blacks.
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The 31-year-old started at outside centre in England’s two losses to the All Blacks last month and got through the series unscathed.
However, he shared a post on Wednesday on social media to say his operation, on what appears to be his shoulder, was complete.
It is unclear as to how long the 65-cap England international will be out for.
With Exeter Chiefs’ preseason already underway ahead of the new Gallagher Premiership season which begins in September, they will be without their talismanic centre for the coming weeks.
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Despite a raft of Chiefs veterans leaving the club in recent years, Slade signed a new deal at Sandy Park in May.
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“There were a lot of factors behind my decision to stay at Exeter Chiefs,” he said after signing his new contract. “I love the club, I’m from just down the road and my family get to come nearly every weekend to watch me play at Sandy Park.
“I joined the academy at 18, so the club is all I’ve ever really known as a professional rugby player. I feel very lucky to be able to say I’ve represented the club over 200 times.
“I call Exeter my home. I’ve started a young family here – my eldest daughter starts school in September – so it just felt right to stay. The club has been my whole adult life, so I just didn’t feel like it was time to go.
“There’s an extremely strong group coming through now, and I’m relishing being one of the senior boys in amongst a group with so much potential to do some great things.
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“We’ve started to speak in recent weeks of putting that ‘potential’ label behind us though and start backing it up. We feel throughout the season we’ve had a lot of games to be learning and improving in and while we are ahead of schedule of where we thought we’d be, we’ve got the boys to be able to do some great things.
“Wanting to see what I could achieve with a new group did serve as a bit of a refreshener as it posed a new challenge. I’ve been here for 12 years with a lot of the same faces, and it felt like a very different club this year. Coming into pre-season, it was an exciting challenge.
“I’m more experienced now but I feel like I’m only just coming into my prime. I feel physically in really good shape, mentally excited about what I’m doing and the opportunities here. So, I’m really looking forward to continuing my career here.”