England fear the worst for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso with Exeter wing facing long spell on the sidelines after dislocating his shoulder

Exeter fear that rookie wing sensation Immanuel Feyi-Waboso faces a long spell out of action — which will have implications for their faltering season and England’s Six Nations challenge.

The 22-year-old flyer dislocated a shoulder during his club’s latest Premiership defeat, at Sale on Saturday.

While the Chiefs are awaiting a medical prognosis, the signs are not promising, according to their director of rugby Rob Baxter.

‘Unfortunately, Manny is now going to be out for a period and it is not ideal either for ourselves or for England,’ said Baxter.

‘We are waiting on scan results which we should get early this week. Obviously, he is not available this weekend (against Gloucester at Sandy Park on Sunday). Initially it has popped out, popped back in and we have got to wait and see what the damage is.

‘When it first got back in, he was not in too much pain because it was, “Can I carry on?”. Clearly, he had just had a shoulder dislocation. We are hoping that means there is not too much damage, but until we get scanned, we have got to assume he has got some damage.’

The 22-year-old flyer dislocated a shoulder during his club’s latest Premiership defeat

Exeter are on a grim run of 10 consecutive league defeats, leaving them bottom of the Premiership at Christmas. To lose one of their few beacons of hope would be far from ideal.

He has also provided plenty of hope for England, almost a year since pledging allegiance to the country where he plays and studies medicine, rather than Wales, where he was born. Feyi-Waboso has scored five tries in his first eight Tests in Steve Borthwick’s revamped back line, but he is in danger of missing their daunting first game of the Six Nations, against Ireland in Dublin on February 1.

But the deadly runner and predatory finisher is enduring a tough domestic season and has struggled to make the same impact while the Chiefs have been under the cosh. ‘On the whole (he has coped) pretty well,’ said Baxter.

‘Do I think he has played as well as last season? Probably not, but he is also playing in a team that is not playing as well as last season. Some of the opportunities to make a huge impression have not quite been there. If you get into the 22 and get the ball in Manny’s hands, he is lethal. We haven’t had many games like that.

‘The nice thing about Manny is you know there’s so much more to come. The amount of game time he has played is still so little. He is only in his early 20s.

‘When he gets to 26-27, what he’ll be able to do could be exceptional. He is on the right path to be a very good player.’