Manu Tuilagi misses Australia tour to give England major selection headache

Manu Tuilagi will miss England’s summer tour of Australia after undergoing a knee operation, leaving Eddie Jones with a major selection headache for the three-match series against the Wallabies.

Tuilagi’s latest setback comes after he missed the entire Six Nations with a hamstring injury. He made his comeback at the start of April and was named in Jones’s squad for a mini training camp in London last week. Upon naming that squad on 17 May, Jones declared that Tuilagi was “looking very fit and enthusiastic … He really wants to make an imprint on this Australian tour.” Just three days later, however, Tuilagi was withdrawn at half-time during Sale’s victory at Wasps with tightness in his knee and while he attended the England camp, it is thought he did not play a full part in the training sessions.

It is the latest in a series of setbacks for Tuilagi, who also suffered a hamstring injury inside the first 10 minutes of England’s autumn victory over South Africa. Jones wants to deploy a midfield of Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell as his 10-12 partnership with Tuilagi outside them but to date, they have managed only 68 minutes on the field together and the latter was lining up on the wing.

Jones has acknowledged that in Tuilagi’s absence he has no like-for-like alternative who offers the same threat and with reports that Henry Slade will also miss the tour, the head coach has a huge void to fill at outside centre. Joe Marchant has, however, been in impressive form for Harlequins and Jones sees the Northampton youngster Tommy Freeman as an option as well.

England and Sale have been adopting a more collaborative approach over Tuilagi’s fitness with the Sharks borrowing a GPS unit from the national set-up. Nonetheless, questions