Leicester Tigers boss Matt O’Connor has revealed Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi will return from injury before the end of the season.
Scrum-half Youngs was initially expected to miss the rest of the season after damaging knee ligaments in England’s opening Six Nations match against Italy, but now has a chance to face Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership on April 14.
Centre Tuilagi has been pencilled in to return against Newcastle on April 27 after a scan revealed he had only strained his pectoral muscle in Leicester’s 16-15 victory over Wasps last month.
“It should be a couple of weeks rather than months,” O’Connor said, speaking about Tuilagi.
“That’s hugely positive. He [Tuilagi] is running around and is probably going to be into some team training late end of this week or early next week.”
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“Youngs has worked incredibly hard to get back, so that he can contribute at the back end of the season. All the indicators are that he should be in and around selection next week.”
The scrum-halves’ swift return means he should be available for the England tour of South Africa in June.
Leicester next face Bath in the Aviva Premiership at Twickenham on Saturday.