Manu Tuilagi, George Martin and Luke Cowan-Dickie have all returned to the England squad in preparation for their round three match against Scotland.
The trio have recovered from injury problems to make their return, with Marcus Smith and Ollie Lawrence also joining up to continue rehabilitation from their own injuries.
When Tuilagi initially picked up his groin injury club coach at Sale Sharks Alex Sanderson was optimistic he could make a return within six weeks, and though he was not rushed back for England’s win against Wales on Saturday his international defence coach Felix Jones feels he’ll be raring to go if called upon at Murrayfield.
“Manu had little bit of a run around out there today,” said Jones on Wednesday. “It wasn’t anything too intense but he looked good.
“He’s done it a number of times where he’s come back from injury with low levels of game time but still been able to perform at a very high level. Experience accounts for a lot in those situations.”
Having only managed to appear sporadically in the Six Nations since 2020, Tuilagi has not played against Scotland since the year before that – missing all three of England’s consecutive defeats since 2021.
Though England are still unbeaten in the tournament and Fraser Dingwall scored in their last game against Wales, Borthwick might be tempted to reunite the centre partnership of Slade and Tuilagi which worked so effectively in 2019.
Up front, the return of Cowan-Dickie and Martin will also bolster England with the pair also in line to step up to the squad for Scotland.
Though replacement hooker Theo Dan has come off the bench in both matches, it has taken until the last 10 minutes on each occasion for Steve Borthwick to sub off captain Jamie George in the same position.
Cowan-Dickie’s experience may give Borthwick the confidence to make the change earlier, while Martin will provide an option both in the second row and blindside flanker and at the very least will be likely to resume his role off the bench that he played four times during the Rugby World Cup.
Lawrence and Smith are unlikely to feature, though the Bath centre is more likely to return against Scotland after training with the squad on Wednesday. It will be more clear as to whether he is ready to compete for a spot in the next few days.
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