England and Exeter centre Henry Slade out for up to four months
Tuesday 8 December 2015 14:39, UK
Exeter and England centre Henry Slade has been ruled out for up to four months after he suffered a serious injury at the weekend.
Slade broke his leg and injured his ankle in the 41-27 win at the Ricoh Arena and has now undergone an operation to insert a plate and wiring.
The 22-year-old picked up the injury after he was tackled by Wasps wing Sailosi Tagicakibau and Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter also confirmed back-row forward Dave Ewers is unlikely to feature again this year due to a knee ligament injury.
"The reality is it is a decent injury, so you would normally talk around four months for an injury like this," said Baxter.
"That can change relatively significantly both ways though depending on a number of factors.
"We are certainly not pencilling in any date for Henry's return because we know it is long-term. We will start talking about a return date in eight to 10 weeks' time when we know a bit more - it will take a bit of time though and a lengthy rehab process.
"He has had what all indications suggest was a successful operation. He has had a plate inserted into the lower part of his leg, he had to have some ligament repair and a bit of wire instead at the lower end of his leg too.
"It was a pretty major operation but certainly not one we don't expect him to make a full recovery from."
The injury is also likely to rule Slade out of England's Six Nations campaign under new coach Eddie Jones and his loss will also be a major blow to Exeter, who briefly claimed top spot in the Aviva Premiership before Saracens won at Newcastle on Sunday.
Slade has won two caps for England, making his debut in a World Cup warm-up game against France in August before featuring in the dead rubber pool match against Uruguay, and was pushing for a place in Jones' squad.
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Baxter will also be without Ewers for an extended period, after a knee injury ruled him out of the win at Wasps.
"Dave will be a little while. He has a fairly significant knee injury so it is going to be a fair few weeks before we see Dave," added Baxter.
"It is difficult to put a timescale on these things but he will be a significant period of time."
