Tigers confirm extent of Veainu injury but good news on Tuilagi front

Leicester Tigers have announced full-back Telusa Veainu suffered a broken jaw in Saturday's European Champions Cup loss to Munster, but Manu Tuilagi could return for this weekend's return fixture at Welford Road.

Veainu was hurt in a tackle from Munster's Andrew Conway and now faces a spell on the sidelines, with a club statement on Monday confirming he had suffered a fracture.

The Tigers' defeat at Thomond Park means Sunday's clash with Munster is effectively a must-win for the Premiership outfit as they seek to qualify from Pool 4.

Tigers head coach Matt O'Connor is confident his side can rise to the challenge, with Tuilagi, Matt Toomua and new arrival Tatafu Polota-Nau all set to be in contention to feature.

"We will go into Sunday with a lot of confidence we can be better than that," O'Connor was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. "Manu Tuilagi is training, we just took the view that we couldn't include him in the 23 this week with the other bumps and bruises in our group.

"He'll have another week of training like Matt Toomua. Tatafu Polota-Nau arrived on Friday.

"There are blokes coming in who will give us a lift ahead of the return."

Tuilagi has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons, his most recent lay-off the result of a knee problem.

Should the powerful centre enjoy a run of games, he is likely to contend for a place in England's Six Nations squad.