Eddie Jones issues update on the fitness of his England midfielders

Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade are winning their fitness battles for England’s Guinness Six Nations clash with Ireland.

Tuilagi and Slade have been recovering from respective groin and ankle injuries but are on course to be available for the Twickenham showdown on Sunday.

“Manu trained fully today so should be in contention for selection. It’s good to have a quality player back,” head coach Eddie Jones said on Wednesday.

“Slade trained today so we have just got to monitor his progress. Positive chance. Quality player. It gives us more options.”

Ollie Devoto, who won his second cap as a replacement off the bench at the Stade de France on February 2, is a doubt because of a back problem.

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England have been hit by the loss of prop Mako Vunipola, who has returned home to Tonga for family reasons.

“Mako’s a quality player but we are lucky we are blessed with two outstanding loosehead props in Joe Marler and Ellis Genge, so we can recover the loss of Mako,” Jones said.

- Press Association 

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