HOW A SAMOAN WITCHDOCTOR HELPED TO RID MANU TUILAGI OF HIS DEMONS
AN hour’s boat trip from the Tuilagi residence, on the Samoan island of Upola, lives a 56-year-old widow in the village of Alafua. Her small wooden hut, at the end of a dirt track, is surrounded by lush banana plantations and flowering breadfruit trees.
It is almost 10,000 miles away from Leicester, but this is where Manu Tuilagi ended up in his quest to overcome his demons.
The England centre’s career was almost derailed by six years of injury problems and, when modern medicine failed to work, he returned home to his roots in the Pacific.
At the end of the dirt track, he met the 56-year-old ‘Fofo Samoa’ — known in the western world as a witchdoctor — and went in search of evil spirits.
‘My gift is to see spirits,’ the spirit healer tells The Mail on Sunday, rolling her ‘r’s, characteristic of her half Samoan and half Fijian accent. ‘This is what I have done since I was 14.’
It was Tuilagi’s mother, Aliitasi, who ordered him to visit the Fofo Samoa back in 2017.
Tuilagi is one of seven brothers. The eldest, Olotuli — a ‘Fa’afafine’ or cross-dresser who has lived his life as a woman and goes by the name ‘Julie’ — had previously visited for treatment.
It is common practice in Samoa, founded heavily on religious beliefs, with healing powers believed to be passed down through generations.
‘I search for people’s Ma’i [sickness] and find out if it is caused by the spirits,’ says the Fofo Samoa, who did not want her real name to be revealed. ‘When I was young I started to see a lot of people — white-faced people and frozen people.
‘Then when I went to school and I felt things. I started to bleed in my face, my nose and my mouth. I was taken to the hospital but my granddad, who was a psychic and a doctor, explained the story behind the spirits. That’s when I got my gift.’
Tuilagi spent four days in the Fofo Samoa’s company. Each morning, he would sail between the islands with his brother, Alesana, spending two hours being treated with Fijian oils. He would wrap himself in a towel and Alesana would wait patiently in the spare room.
‘I saw that three Tamaitai [lady spirits] were following Manu,’ she says. ‘Two Samoan ladies and a Hawaiian girl. The Hawaiian girl was the worst. These ladies were really attracted to him — they like good-looking, talented people — and they kept following him.
‘These women told me Manu belongs to them. I said “No, no. God created him and he’s got his own parents to look after him.” They told me it’s none of my business and called me a lot of words. They keep saying that he’s their husband. I said “God has a plan for this man. God has empowered me with his power to remove you from him.”
‘I massaged his whole body with oils made from coconut, frangipani, sandalwood, rose. He started to feel different, light and young. I cast the women away and I told Manu he will play rugby again. Now he is protected. When he is playing, I put out a protection from the spirits.’
On the search for Tuilagi’s Fofo Samoa, Sportsmail also discovered a different healer who treated the centre back in 2011.
In the village of Nu’u — six miles from the capital — Tuilagi met Tafiaiga Faotu’i to cure knee pain during the early years of his career.
‘I mixed coconut oil with herbs and rubbed it on to the affected area,’ says Tafiaiga. ‘I mix the two and see what colour it turns into.
‘Once the colour settles I know how to treat the patient. I massaged the area for a few minutes and let the ointment soak through the skin. On the fourth visit, he was fixed.’
Before his visit, Tuilagi consulted Leicester Tigers physio Ed Hollis. Busy training commitments in England mean he can only see his Samoan healers during the off season, although they remain in contact through Facebook.
Now the benefits are starting to pay off — with Tuilagi starring in England’s victory over Ireland in his comeback Test last week.
It has been a long and dark process for Tuilagi, with questions asked whether he would ever run out at Twickenham again. He has started just three Test in six years and, for three of those years, he lived with fellow Samoan Logovi’i Mulipola in Thorpe Astley, a suburb of Liecester. He would often go in search of home comforts.
‘He was down, very down,’ says Mulipola. ‘I think the secret to his recovery was back in Samoa. The people around him and his family.
‘We tried to lift his spirits; play guitar, sing songs, play snooker, have a few beers. He loves the Guinness. We’d play ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, and Bob Marley, while eating lamb, taro, chicken soup, chop suey. Chop suey is Manu’s special. Sometimes we’d go out in Leicester until 3am.
‘There was only one time, when
we were drinking, that he told me he was getting tired of everything. I just said to him, “listen, don’t give up, man, keep going and you will play for England again”. That’s why, last week, I was so proud to see him playing against Ireland.’
These days, Tuilagi has moved out of the lads’ pad in Thorpe Astley. He had his first child, Leilani Lea’auta, with his fiancée Chantelle last year and they have settled down in a village, next door to teammate Telusa Veainu. ‘We drive to training together and, particularly when Manu was injured, he’d talk about faith being important,’ says Veainu.
‘For every island kid, the number one thing is faith. Next there’s family, then rugby, then food. He’s Catholic and every Sunday he goes to church. He’ll go in his traditional Samoan outfit; sarong, tropical shirt and a Samoan necklace — even if it’s minus four degrees!’
Playing France today, Tuilagi will be back to make his first international start at Twickenham since 2013. Before kick-off, he will stop in the dressing room to say a prayer, as he does before every match. His centre partnership with Henry Slade already seems to be striking the perfect balance. Back in Alafua, they might go so far to say it is a match made in heaven.