EXETER Chiefs Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, is facing a back three crisis after confirming three of his frontline stars are set for spells on the sidelines.

England international Immanuel Feyi-Waboso heads up the list having dislocated his shoulder in the recent Gallagher Premiership loss away to Sale Sharks.

The winger is set to miss at least the start of the upcoming Six Nations Championship as club, country and the player himself decide whether or not he should undergo surgery.

Should they decide to go for an operation, Feyi-Waboso is booked in for a procedure next week with his recovery expected to take around 10-12 weeks.

“It’s an ongoing process at the moment involving Manny, our medical team and the England medical team,” said Baxter. “The shoulder isn’t going to rehab for the full Six Nations campaign. England go off into camp in not very long.

“He’s barely started his rehab process really as the to-ing and fro-ing over whether he has his rehab is slowing both options down - it’s slowing the operation process and the rehab process.

“The big thing at the minute is the decision will be made. It can go one way or the other and that will give him a clear reference point for what he is aiming for. Whatever Manny decides, I will support him.”

As well as Feyi-Waboso being out, also missing is full-back Josh Hodge, who broke a hand in Saturday’s loss at Leicester Tigers, while winger Olly Woodburn will be sidelined for the remainder of the season after sustaining a serious ACL injury.

If that was not enough for Baxter to contend with, prop Ehren Painter is also set for a significant spell out after he too picked up an ACL injury.

“I am concerned about both Olly and Ehren. Unfortunately, they’re not straightforward ACLs, nice and clean. Both of them involve other things, either other ligaments, cartilage or other bits and pieces. Ehren’s is worse. He’s got a fair bit of cartilage damage in there. He’s going to be in a multiple operation situation and any big operation can issues down the line.

“The one thing I will say is that I think Olly is particularly diligent in how he looks at his body. He's had a couple of very, very good years for us. They're largely based on his day-to-day maintenance, how he's not deconditioned in off seasons, how he's been very good through each preseason over the last two or three seasons. So there isn't necessarily an indicator other than his age, that it becomes a major issue.”

Thankfully, the news on Hodge is better, albeit he will be sidelined for a number of weeks. Baxter continued: “It's a concern but it's not at this stage a huge concern. He's broken his hand, but it's a stable fracture and it doesn't require surgery so it could be relatively short-term.

“It could settle down in two, three, four weeks it's not it's not one that we're anticipating needing an operation or plate in it from the initial x-rays. It's going to be one that will settle on its own and we will manage conservatively and hopefully just get him back up and running as soon as possible.”

Baxter has recalled winger Paul Brown-Bampoe from his loan spell at National League Plymouth Albion to help combat the losses.