Exeter and England Await Verdict on Feyi-Waboso’s Shoulder Injury

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has started seven of Exeter’s eight Premiership losses this season. Exeter is currently awaiting an assessment of the shoulder injury sustained by England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. The 22-year-old suffered a dislocated shoulder early during the Chiefs’ 28-10 defeat against Sale on Saturday. Feyi-Waboso, who possesses nine England caps, is confirmed to miss their upcoming home Premiership fixture against Gloucester on Sunday, 29 December. This incident represents the most recent setback for an Exeter team that has yet to secure a victory in either a Premiership or Champions Cup match this season. Speaking to BBC Sport, Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, stated: “Initially it’s popped out, popped back in, and now we’ve just got to wait and see what the damage is. When it first popped back, I don’t think he seemed to be in too much pain because he was a bit ‘can I not carry on?’. The medics had to go ‘clearly not, you’ve just had a shoulder dislocation’. So we’re hopeful that that means there’s not too much damage. We’ve just got to assume that the likelihood is he’s got some shoulder damage from a shoulder dislocation and we’ll have to see how bad it is.” This season, Feyi-Waboso has accumulated six tries across 10 domestic and European starts for Exeter. He also scored England’s sole try during their narrow 24-22 defeat to New Zealand last month. The medical student additionally registered tries in all three of England’s summer tour fixtures, scoring against Japan and twice against the All Blacks. Baxter further commented: “He’s a very good player, he creates moments for us. Where we’re fortunate is we’ve got the rest of our back three up and running now, whereas we didn’t have Ben Hammersley and Tommy Wyatt at the start of the season. We’ve got good cover there, but unfortunately Manny’s now going to be out for a period and it’s not ideal either for ourselves or for England.”