Tuilagi as Christmas present for Leicester?

Manu Tuilagi could make his long awaited return to action for Leicester before Christmas.
The England centre has not featured for the Tigers since September and he missed the autumn internationals as a result but he should feature in the Six Nations bringing his power to England’s attack.
“Manu Tuilagi will not be fit [for this weekend] and should be back by the end of December, give or take a week or two,” said Tigers boss Richard Cockerill.
“In the modern game you’ve got to be able to dent the line of the opposition… when it’s a stalemate you need physicality. That’s the reality of it and Manu gives you that. When England have played at their best Manu has been huge for them. Hopefully he’ll be back playing at Christmas time and be back into the England squad for the Six Nations.”
Fellow internationals Tom Croft and Geoff Parling are likely to be involved as early as this weekend however when the Tigers host European champions Toulon.
Croft was due to return last weekend only to pull out at the last minute to attend the birth of his daughter while Parling has been out for three months to recover from multiple concussions.
“Tom is fine and he would have played last week were it not for his wife having a baby,” said Cockerill. “Geoff is good to go and he has been training for the past few weeks. This is the end of the three months off we were advised to give him.
“He has been symptom-free for a few weeks now and, although he not been doing any contact, he has been doing his conditioning. On the advice of the specialist, we have eased him into contact training and, over the past week or so, he has been tackling and doing live scrums too.
“He has been feeling good for two or three weeks and has been pestering me to play. It’s unlikely that either of them will start on Sunday though. They have not played any rugby for months and it would probably be too soon for them.”