Exeter of England rugby club’s Nigerian-born star, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has received surgery on a face injury he copped while playing for his team last weekend, as it was deemed too severe to overlook, Sports247 reports.

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Although Feyi-Waboso and his club’s officials initially felt he could ride out the setback, confirmation came late Friday that the England international had to go under the knife in midweek and will now likely miss rest of the season.

Exeter will also miss the 23-year-old winger for their crucial final fixture in the English Rugby Premier League’s regular-season against fellow-Nigerian-born star, Maro Itoje’s Saracens this Saturday.

If Itoje’s side win that game, they will go into the end-of-season play-offs at the expense of The Chiefs, who are now without Feyi-Waboso, after he was hurt in the face during Exeter’s win away to Leicester RFC last week.

The injury came after Feyi-Waboso made a crunch tackle on Ollie Hassell-Collins in the 52nd minute of Exeter’s victory over The Tigers, then appeared to hurt his jaw in the process and the right side of his face became swollen at full-time.

Should Exeter fail to make the play-offs final, England are unlikely to risk Feyi-Waboso for a warm-up fixture against France XV on June 18th, but The Lions’ medical staff are confident he will be fit to face world champions, South Africa on July 4th.

Exeter disclosed in a press release: “After extensive monitoring by The Chiefs’ medical team and investigative scans, a decision has been made in partnership with England Rugby for Feyi-Waboso to undergo surgery.”

Sports247 gathered further that it is the second major setback of the year for Feyi-Waboso, who earlier missed the Rugby Six Nations Series after suffering a hamstring injury while training with England in early February.

Feyi-Waboso, who is one of six siblings born to parents with Nigerian, English and Jamaican heritage, also missed the second half of last season because of a shoulder injury, with England and Exeter disagreeing over how his treatment was handled.

The 23-year-old winger was born in Wales and grew up in Llandaff, Cardiff, where he began playing rugby and, after school at Clifton College in Bristol, he initially enrolled at Aston University, then moved to study medicine at Exeter University.

He earlier played with Rumney RFC as well as for Cardiff Schools at U-11 and U-15 levels, then signed for Cardiff Blues’ academy in 2020 then, following Wasps’ expulsion from the league, Feyi-Waboso was signed by Exeter Chiefs in 2022.

Feyi-Waboso first played for the U18 team of Wales, but later switched to play for England at senior level and received his first call-up to The Lions on January 17th, 2024 for the Rugby Six Nations Championship.