Denny Solomona ‘accused of using homophobic slur’ towards Jamie Shillcock during Sale win over Worcester

Sale Sharks wing is accused of verbally abusing the Worcester Warriors fly-half

Denny Solomona has been charged with allegedly verbally abusing Worcester's Jamie Shillcock (Getty)

Denny Solomona has been charged with allegedly using verbally abusive language towards an opponent during Sale Sharks’ victory over Worcester Warriors last weekend, with the England international understood to have been accused of making a homophobic slur.

Worcester fly-half Jamie Shillcock was overheard on television microphones complaining about the alleged offence in the 55th minute of Sale’s 58-25 Premiership victory last Saturday, with the Rugby Football Union confirming that the wing has been charged for the offence and will be required to face a disciplinary panel on Thursday 5 April.

Solomona, capped twice by England on their tour of Argentina last summer, will face a minimum suspension of six weeks if found guilty and would miss the rest of the regular season, with the start of the play-off semi-finals currently seven weeks away.

The BBC reports that Solomona is accused of using a similar slur that landed Mathieu Bastareaud a three-week ban in January for using homophobic language towards Treviso and Italy forward Sebastian Negri during a European Champions Cup match.

The 24-year-old has been on the fringes of the England squad since the tour of Argentina last summer, but did his international hopes no good when he was sent home from a training camp by head coach Eddie Jones following an unsanctioned alcohol-fuelled night out with Leicester Tigers centre Manu Tuilagi, which was cited at the time as “team culture issues”.

Shillcock (left) was heard making a complaint in the second half of the Premiership match (Getty)

Solomona was recalled to the squad, but failed to feature in either the autumn internationals or the Six Nations.

With Anthony Watson injured for the rest of the season, Solomona stood a good chance of being included on the summer tour of South Africa, though the rugby league convert will now sweat on how the remainder of his season pans out following the hearing.