Rob Baxter's 'concerning' comment about Immanuel Feyi-Waboso's track record

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is keeping his fingers crossed that the surgeon Manny Feyi-Waboso is seeing on Thursday will confirm that he’ll only be out for four to six weeks with the ankle injury he sustained whilst playing for England against Australia on Sunday.

England medics have already publicly declared that that the 23-year-old, who has scored two tries in five appearances this season, will miss the rest of the Nations Championship because of the injury he suffered in the first half of Sunday’s 45-22 win over the Wallabies.

Feyi-Waboso was a victim of a ‘knee-drop’ tackle by Angus Bell and was walking around in a boot post-match, but Baxter says the initial signs are that the injury won’t require an operation.

“He’s in here this morning, getting some treatment,” said Baxter.

“He’s got an appointment tomorrow with the surgeon who’s going to give us a more detailed opinion on all the scan results, etcetera, that he has had. That’ll then decide where it goes.

“I think the balance of opinion at the moment, both from ourselves and England, is that he’s unlikely to require an operation, but I don’t want to confirm that until post tomorrow’s consultations.

“But I think you’re talking, if it’s a decent high ankle sprain, a minimum of four to six weeks really, but it’s just so difficult to know. Manny’s the kind of guy who might be running in a week’s time, and then that changes the whole timescale.

“So, it’s a little early to say too much until there’s a conversation tomorrow because everything could come out really, really positive or you could come out on a negative side.

“The difference between the two is a considerable amount of time. So, I don’t want to say too much and make a statement that was so far wrong it’s ridiculous.”

Feyi-Waboso has scored nine tries in 17 appearances for England, but his progress has been hampered by a string of injuries. He missed the entire 2025 Six Nations with a shoulder injury.

Last year, he picked up a hamstring injury in training before the opening-round win over Wales and was ruled out of the tournament for the second year running.

Baxter adds that, as with England and Lions winger Jack Nowell at the club, they are susceptible to injuries that come in flurries, but there will be long periods when they are injury-free.

“It’s pretty concerning, isn’t it? Jack Nowell was the same when he was here. It’s quite frustrating because you are seeing him over at La Rochelle, and he has had a really high availability.

“But sometimes the way these guys play, they are guys who break tackles and come out the other side of tackles, but they’re always at risk with these kinds of lower limb injuries.

“Because they end up in that situation where they are breaking tackles, and they’re all twisting and exerting pressure and power at awkward times in these types of situations.

“The benefit of having players who are capable of breaking tackles is obviously they’re very dangerous, but the challenge with that, though, is keeping them fit.

“Manny will probably have a few periods where he goes injury-free for considerable lengths of time. It tends to happen like that, you know; injuries tend to come in a bit of a flurry. And then they settle down.”