Latest Immanuel Feyi-Waboso injury warrants visit from England physio

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter has ruled England flyer Immanuel Feyi-Waboso out of Sunday’s Champions Cup trip to Toulouse, but a scan cleared him of serious hamstring damage, so he could be out for only a week.

Feyi-Waboso, who scored two tries in the Gallagher PREM defeat at Bath, limped out of Sunday’s win over Newcastle Red Bulls early in the second half, but any fears he could face another lengthy lay-off have now been dispelled.

Baxter hopes the winger, who started all three of England’s Nations Championship games in the summer, scoring tries against Fiji and Argentina, can return for the trip to West Country rivals Bristol Bears a week on Saturday.

That would leave Feyi-Waboso, who holds an enhanced RFU contract and missed this year’s Six Nations after damaging his hamstring in January, with a fortnight to rest before England start the second phase of the competition against Australia at Twickenham on November 8th.

He is the fourth Chiefs winger ruled out by injury, with Campbell Ridl, Olly Woodburn and Paul Brown-Bampoe all nursing problems, so Baxter will have to go with either Tommy Wyatt, Zac Wimbush, Sam Harris or Ben Hammersley in Toulouse.

“He’s got some awareness there. The scan doesn’t show too much, and we are hoping it’s one of those things. Scans always tend to show something, but the player feels very little from it. But actually, on testing, he’s very good,” Baxter said ahen asked about the severity of his star man’s injury.

“So, we’re hopeful that we can kind of almost treat the symptoms he’s showing and see where he gets to over the next week or so.

“Seeing that he’s reporting it so well, and he’s functionally so good, we may not need to do much intervention.

“There’s nothing I’m hearing from our physios saying there should be a long-term issue.

“An England physio was in yesterday to assess the scan and assess Manny,” he added.