{"id":950808,"date":"2026-05-10T16:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/950808\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:44:15","slug":"england-hopeful-will-struggle-to-get-back-this-season-after-injury-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/950808\/","title":{"rendered":"England hopeful will ‘struggle to get back this season’ after injury blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leicester Tigers fly-half Billy Searle is in a race against time to be fit for England\u2019s Nations Championship Tests in July, with him now set to miss the rest of the season through injury.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Devon-native was a notable absentee in Leicester\u2019s starting XV for their thumping 41-17 win over Northampton Saints on Saturday, with James O\u2019Connor handed the starting role instead.<\/p>\n

Searle has arguably been the form fly-half in the PREM<\/a> this season, notably winning the league\u2019s Player of the Month award back in January, playing a key role in Leicester\u2019s push for the play-offs.<\/p>\n

Billy Searle emerges as major England doubt after season-ending injury<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll struggle to get back this season,\u201d Tigers<\/a> head coach Geoff Parling told\u00a0TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took a knock during the week (in training) just chasing a kick, and he strained his hamstring. It\u2019ll be touch and go whether he\u2019s back this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leicester v Northampton: Five takeaways as Pollock\u2019s \u2018comical\u2019 cameo caps \u2018miserable day\u2019 for the visitors<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While Searle is yet to win his first senior cap, his form since arriving at Mattioli Woods Welford Road this off-season has seen him leapfrog his way into the England<\/a> picture.<\/p>\n

The fly-half started for England A in their 52-14 win over Ireland XV back in January, and he recently revealed he had held conversations with attack coach Lee Blackett over a possible call-up this summer.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had conversations with Lee Blackett,\u201d Searle told the Rugby Pod last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in last week. We had a good chat and just saying how well I\u2019m doing, like, just some stuff about my game, but saying that I\u2019m in the mix and they\u2019re talking about me, which is great to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to focus on that too much. I just want to keep playing how I am, and hopefully, if it comes during the season and I\u2019m playing with this sort of form, and I\u2019m in the mix, I\u2019d love to get the opportunity at some point.<\/p>\n

Gloucester v Sale Sharks: Five takeaways as England snub gets \u2018standing ovation\u2019 in front of Steve Borthwick and \u2018lesson going in\u2019 for Charlie Atkinson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAll you want as a player is to be picked on form, and I\u2019m sure if I keep going well, potentially that might come. But that sort of thing\u2019s out of my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would face strong competition for a place in the senior squad, though, with Fin Smith, Marcus Smith and George Ford having somewhat of a triopoly over the number 10 jersey in recent years, while Charlie Atkinson has also been capped in the past 12 months too. Elsewhere, the likes of Harvey Skinner have also been staking their case for a call-up.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Bristol v Saracens: Five takeaways as tackle completion tells a \u2018damning\u2019 story while half-back swaps \u2018pays dividends\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leicester Tigers fly-half Billy Searle is in a race against time to be fit for England\u2019s Nations Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[393,225,20795,12,6875,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-950808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-england","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-leicester-tigers","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-premiership","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116551291331695274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}