England centre Henry Slade’s availability for their Six Nations away fixtures against Italy and France has been confirmed.
Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter revealed the 28-year-old, who was named in Eddie Jones 2022 Six Nations squad, is in contention to play in Montpellier on Sunday.
Slade, a type 1 diabetic, stated in May that he would decline the Covid vaccine, questioning whether “you can trust it” before later clarifying his comments.
“Henry’s available, yes. Put it this way, if you don’t see him picked it won’t be because he’s injured, unless he gets injured in training,” said Baxter, who names his team at Friday lunchtime.
“The truth is, and I know Henry doesn’t mind me saying this, Henry never said he wasn’t going to get vaccinated.
“He said at the time he wanted to see what the situation was and that was months and months ago. That’s all I’m prepared to say.
“He never said he wasn’t going to have it, he said he wanted to see what the situation was. Everybody else seems to have surmised what they want from that.”
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Barnes & Owens expose the five worst players to referee
#1. Wayne Barnes – Martin Johnson
The lock will always be remembered as the man presented with the 2003 World Cup, which England won in Sydney. As well as being an inspirational leader, the Leicester lock was also a formidable player in his own right. A rock like presence in the tight, whose rugby motto was if in doubt, go forward.
BARNES SAID: “I was always petrified of Martin Johnson because he was coming to the end of his career when I started in the Premiership.” said Barnes.
“2003 was my first [season] and obviously that was towards the end of his career and I remember I had to sin-bin him once and I actually apologised as I did it.
“I said ‘I’m very sorry I have to do this’ because he’s such a big personality. I guess he was always someone who scared me witless!”
DID YOU KNOW? he comes from a sporting family. His great-grandfather was a wrestler