Manu Tuilagi was wrong but will bounce back - Matt O'Connor

Leicester Tigers head coach Matt O'Connor believes Manu Tuilagi can bounce back from his latest setback that saw the Samoan-born professional rugby union player sent back from England training camp last week.

According to reports, Tuilagi and Sale Sharks winger Denny Solomona returned to team hotel drunk on Sunday late night ahead of the final day of the training camp in Teddington and were sent back home with Rugby Football Union citing "team cultures issues" as the reason behind the move.

England boss Eddie Jones has announced another training camp in Oxford next month and the squad for the autumn international series during which they play Argentina, Australia and Samoa is set to be announced on October.

O'Connor, who coaches Tuilagi at Leicester stated that the 26-year-old is aware of the consequence of his act and insists he will be very surprised if the 6ft 1in centre is left out of the November Tests squad because of it.

"He understands that he made a mistake. He knows he got it wrong," Leicester head coach O'Connor told reporters at Welford Road on Tuesday.

"He has come back with a renewed attitude. He understands what the standards are around the England environment.

"It was one of those things. He made a mistake, and retrospectively, he knows he made a mistake. He is moving forward now.

"I would be very surprised if it had further ramifications. Eddie is a smart guy."

Tuilagi, who has featured in 27 Tests for England, has been sidelined by a series of injuries that kept him out of action for a lengthy period and his last appearance for the red rose team came in March last year.

However, O'Connor added that the former England Saxons player is determined to prove a point.

"The reality is that Manu made the wrong call, and he has learnt from that, hopefully, and he will be better for it," O'Connor added.

"He is working really hard.

"We made a conscious decision when he came back out of England camp to expose him to as much rugby as we could because he was incredibly frustrated with not being allowed to do weights, not being allowed to participate with the lads.

"He was isolated off the back of being in rehab all the time, and he wasn't doing all the things that he enjoys doing. We sat down with him and worked out what are the things that excite him about the environment and tried to expose him to as much of that as we could.

"It has been incredibly frustrating because he had been out of the team environment.

"He loves everything about the game. He loves the contact, he loves competing, he loves running with the ball, he loves defending. He is a pleasure to coach.

"He is doing really well. Injury-wise, he is flying, and in a lot better head-space. Hopefully, he will play against Bath in round one."