Veainu’s appetite restored after jaw break
TONGAN flyer Telusa Veainu will fight through the pain barrier to help rescue Leicester’s season after recovering from a gruesome double-jaw break in early December that threatened to wreck his impressive campaign.
Veainu, a standout performer at full-back for Tigers before clashing heads with Munster’s Andrew Conway during their Champions Cup tie in Limerick, told TRP: “It was a horrible injury because I couldn’t eat properly for a while and lacked energy.
“Surgeons had to insert three plates and a few screws inside my mouth and they will stay there until the summer. The jaw’s a bit stiff because of muscle damage and there’s still some pain, but apart from that I’ve healed pretty quick and want to play.
“I was gutted about being out because it happened at an important time, but it’s great to be back and I want to try and get Tigers back to the top.”
A poor recent run of results has seen Leicester fall out of immediate top four contention, mounting pressure on under-fire head coach Matt O’Connor.
However, with new forwards coach Mark Bakewell now in place, Veainu said: “We’ve got Matt’s back 100 per cent and we’ve a lot of faith in what he’s trying to achieve. Having Mark join us will only strengthen our backroom staff.
“They’ve got good ideas on the game and Matt’s given us a template to train well and execute game plans, but the fact is the players haven’t stepped up to the mark.
“We get down inside the 22 a lot but then knock-on or give away dumb penalties and we’re wasting chances to score tries. Manu Tuilagi and Matt Toomua are forming a good partnership but it’s up to us guys outside to step up and perform.”
Veainu is ready to fire, adding: “I felt alright at Gloucester last week and hopefully I can get the rhythm back in my game again quickly.
“It’s been frustrating watching the guys losing games and we’ve left ourselves a lot to do, but we still believe we can make the play-offs.”