Henry Slade in fight to make England’s summer tour

'We’re sure he’ll make a full recovery but it’s a long-term situation'

Exeter’s Henry Slade is carried off against Wasps on Saturday (Reuters)

Exeter are clinging to the hope that Henry Slade, the most talked-about midfielder in England whatever Manu Tuilagi may think to the contrary and a racing certainty to feature in the Calcutta Cup match with Scotland in February until injury intervened, will be back on his feet some time before the end of April.

But even if Slade’s recovery from a fracture dislocation of the lower right leg goes to plan, he will be hard pushed to make the summer Test tour of Australia – a major target, now that the Six Nations is certain to pass him by.

The 22-year-old West Countryman underwent surgery within 24 hours of suffering the injury towards the end of the Devonians’ eye-catching victory at Wasps on Saturday night. His leg is now held together by a plate, together with some wiring, while a second major repair job has been carried out on his mangled ankle ligaments.

“Fortunately, the ankle did not stay dislocated for long and it was a fairly standard operation,” said Rob Baxter, the head coach of the Premiership’s second-placed team. “But while these injuries are more common than they once were, they are also pretty complicated. For that reason, we’re not pencilling in any date for Henry’s return. We’re sure he’ll make a full recovery, but it’s a long-term situation. We’ll know more in 10 weeks or so.”

Adding insult to the Slade injury is… another significant injury, this one affecting the outstanding Zimbabwean flanker Dave Ewers, who was widely assumed to be closing in on a first England cap after qualifying through residency. Ewers damaged knee ligaments during the recent victory over Harlequins and is not expected to be fit much before the end of February, if then.

If Slade was criminally underused by the England hierarchy during the benighted World Cup campaign, Ewers was not considered worthy of a place in the pre-tournament training squad of 50-plus players – something of a mystery to those who rated him the most effective blind-side specialist in last season’s Premiership.

“It’s an MCL injury, which is less serious than an ACL,” said Baxter, adding that Ewers was now hobbling round Sandy Park in a leg brace. “Unfortunately, quite a bit of the ligament has gone, so we’re looking at something between 10 and 12 weeks. It’s rough on the club and bad timing for both players in terms of their international ambitions.”

With the French powerhouse of Clermont Auvergne on the immediate horizon – Exeter host last season’s beaten European Champions Cup finalists in the elite competition this weekend – Baxter can only pray that his squad is deep enough to cope.

Another of the club’s front-line talents, the hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, is also out of commission, although he is making decent progress in recovering from a broken thumb and should be available for the Six Nations.

Meanwhile, the highly proficient Argentine Test lock Mariano Galarza has signed a contract extension at Gloucester, thereby bucking the trend among his fellow exiled Pumas, many of whom have returned to South America to play Super Rugby.