Baxter leaves 'final decision' to England over Feyi-Waboso with Boks looming

Exeter head coach Rob Baxter insisted Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will not be rushed back as the England wing faces a race to be fit for the start of England’s summer tour.

The Chiefs will certainly be without Feyi-Waboso for their Gallagher PREM play-off semi-final at Bath on Saturday after he had an operation on his jaw last week.

England open their summer campaign against South Africa in Johannesburg on July 4 before further fixtures against Fiji and Argentina on July 11 and July 18.

And Baxter said: “Manny will not be rushed back into any match situation. He is on an enhanced contract so England will make the final decision.

“It is an assessment almost on a weekly basis. Right here and now, he is not available this weekend.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bath

07:00

13 Jun 26

Exeter Chiefs

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“I imagine what we will look at is if there is an assessment we can do at the start of next week to see where he is and that is how these things go.

“If a surgeon looks at his jaw and thinks everything is fine and everything is settled… could it be stable after two weeks, or three weeks, or four? There is a process, and that will get agreed with the surgeon who has done the operation.

“It won’t come down to me, saying ‘No, I want Manny this weekend’. That won’t be the call. He will either be made available or he won’t.”

Feyi-Waboso, 23, missed all of England’s Guinness Six Nations matches with a hamstring injury.

His latest setback arrived in the second half following a tackle on Ollie Hassell-Collins in Exeter’s win against Leicester on May 31.

Baxter continued: “He knew he had picked up a bang in the game, but I think he thought he loosened a tooth at the time. It was only when he had an X-ray to assess his tooth that this came out.

“He is a physical player, the way he plays, and when you run quick you are going to run into things hard.

“He has just been incredibly unfortunate. It was not a big tackle, or something he got technically wrong, but just a rugby thing, where hard parts of different bodies hit and something breaks and that’s what happened. It is just unfortunate for Manny because he was having such a big end to the season.”