Chiefs suffer Slade blow

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs and England star Henry Slade is set for a spell on the sidelines after he sustained a suspected broken right leg in his side’s 41-27 win over Wasps.

The 22-year-old playmaker suffered the injury with just 15 minutes remaining at the Ricoh Arena when he was buckled under pressure from home winger Sailosi Tagicakibau.

Slade was stretchered from the field and was returned to Exeter immediately after the game to undergo x-rays on the injury which, according to head coach Rob Baxter post-match, did not look good.

“Henry’s in a case and the initial prognosis is that’s likely to be a broken leg,” said Baxter. “Obviously until we get him back to Exeter we won’t know the full extent until he has had an x-ray. We’re pretty confident though it’s pretty nasty.”

Baxter admitted the incident occurred as Slade - who was tipped to be part of Eddie Jones’ first England squad - had his leg trapped when Tagicakibau looked to clear him out.

“He’s [Slade] obviously got his legs spread and the Wasps person who is clearing him out slides off him and does not get a great clear out on him. So he is pulling at him and rolls his body onto his leg. Henry gets folded back over his leg and there is definitely some kind of bend and movement there on our video. To what extent it is needs a bit more investigation.”

With Luke Cowan-Dickie (thumb) and Dave Ewers (knee) already on the treatment table, Baxter could well do without having another of his homegrown products out for an extended period.

“Henry’s a tough cookie and he’s a bit sore in there now,” added Baxter. “Any injury to any player on any side will always put a downer on things. That said, these things happen in professional sport. Henry is tough kid, whose always in the thick of it. He’ll pick up injuries at times, so what we have to do is look after him as best we can.

“We’ll look to get him raring to go as quickly as we can and we’ll use this an opportunity to get other bits and pieces of him rested and up to speed. Hopefully if is a break, it’s nice and clean and hopefully not too other damage has been caused.”