Slater's Six Nations hopes dashed by knee injury
Ed Slater's hopes of being involved in England's RBS 6 Nations campaign have been dashed by a knee injury that has ruled him out for up to two months.
The Leicester captain, who can play in the second and back rows, sustained medial ligament damage when making a tackle in the first half of Saturday's Aviva Premiership defeat at Saracens.
While the Tigers are optimistic he will not require surgery, he will miss at least the first half of the Six Nations and, given his position on the fringes of the team, the injury had denied him precious opportunities to impress new England head coach Eddie Jones.
Slater was touted by some pundits as a possible Red Rose captain despite having yet to make his Test debut, but a bleak injury update issued by Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill has ended any chance of that unlikely scenario unfolding.
"Ed has medial ligament damage. It's not too bad but it will probably be six to eight weeks. It's not ideal or what we needed," Cockerill said.
"Hopefully he won't need surgery but we'll only be able to make a decision on that once the swelling has gone down.
"Thankfully the injury is not to the same knee that caused his problems last season. It's just bad luck rather than because of ongoing problems."
Slater joins England's ever-lengthening list of injuries with props Kieran Brookes and Alex Corbisiero, back row Dave Ewers, wing Jonny May and centres Henry Slade and Manu Tuilagi set to miss all or part of the Six Nations.