Tuilagi nears full fitness to give legs to Lions chance
LIONS attack coach Gregor Townsend is due to meet with Manu Tuilagi, who could yet make the tour to South Africa despite having not played for over six months.
Tuilagi tore his Achilles playing for Sale Sharks and needed an operation in October, forcing him to miss England’s Autumn Nations Cup campaign and the Six Nations.
But Sharks boss Alex Sanderson says Tuilagi is close to a return to action and in contention to make the cut when Warren Gatland announces his Lions squad on May 6.
“It is totally speculative, I have no idea, but do I think it is realistic? Yes, I do. I got a message from Gregor Townsend saying he wants to come down and chat to him,” Sanderson revealed.
Tuilagi, below, has been hiking and doing salsa classes in a bid to strengthen his Achilles, and looks set to figure in the climax to the Premiership season.
“His Achilles is going to be fine. I have seen him running, he is out there running,” Sanderson confirmed. “What they are very cautions about, the S&C guys, is that after such a long time out, when you want to chuck him in and he wants to do everything, you end up getting a soft tissue injury.
“So there is a relatively slow progression to him getting back to rugby-related activities; we want to take it day-by-day, I guess, but it will definitely be May.”
Tuilagi last week committed his future to the Sharks by signing a new two-year deal.
In turning down more lucrative offers in France, Tuilagi has given himself a chance to add to his 43 England caps.
What is good news for Sale, is also good news for Eddie Jones and England, according to Sanderson.
“I think they are a different side when he is with them, he adds so much,” he said. “I don’t know what conversations he has had with Eddie. All the conversations I have had with him is about this place and him wanting to stay.”
The return on the Sharks’ sizeable investment in Tuilagi has yet to be fully appreciated with the former Leicester man playing just six Premiership games since his debut back in August.
However, with Tuilagi and fellow wrecking ball centre Rohan van Rensburg operating in tandem, Sanderson insists his injury record never came into the equation.
“What is quite obvious from the pair of them, they are so powerfully built they are always on a bit of a knife-edge in terms of pulling something or injuring something,” he said.
“You don’t want to get 20 games out of them, you want to get 12-15 good quality games, rotating them in and out, so they are not playing under fatigue and playing with little injuries that could escalate into something bigger. “It is brilliant to have two players of that calibre that we can rotate and not treat them like pieces
of meat.”