Manu Tuilagi sent home from England training camp

Manu Tuilagi's future as an England player is in doubt after he and Denny Solomona were sent home from a training camp.

The RFU has confirmed that the pair had been dismissed over what it described as "team culture issues".

The Guardian reports that "the Leicester centre and Sale wing have been disciplined for drinking alcohol during the three-day camp in south-west London".

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The pair trained on Saturday and Sunday with the rest of the squad, but breached camp rules on Sunday evening when they went out drinking, claims the BBC.

Tuilagi has barely featured for England in recent seasons, and has made just one appearance under coach Eddie Jones as a replacement in March 2016. He has been out of action since January with knee ligament problems and only recently returned to fitness.

"Tuilagi was due to speak at the launch of England's kit for the forthcoming autumn internationals but his appearance was cancelled after this incident," says the London Evening Standard. It adds that coach Jones, who had talked up the fit-again centre before the camp, "will feel massively let down by the pair."

The return of Tuilagi to the England fold was the "big news" ahead of the training camp says the Daily Mail. Hopes were high that the talented 26-year-old would finally be able to resume his stop-start international career.

That prospect now appears to be in doubt. The Mail says "this is not the first time Tuilagi has hit the headlines for off-field reasons".

The Samoan-born centre was almost deported in 2010 after it emerged he was in the country on an expired tourist visa.

He then made England's World Cup squad in 2011 despite serving a ban for punching Chris Ashton in a club match, but he disgraced himself in New Zealand when he was arrested for jumping off a ferry in Auckland harbour.

In 2013 he was again in trouble after misbehaving during a trip to Downing Street, but "the worst of his mishaps" came in 2015 says the Mail, when he missed the World Cup following an incident when he assaulted two female police officers and a taxi driver on a night out.

He admitted two counts of assaulting a police officer, assault by beating and causing criminal damage.

Solomona also has Samoan heritage and only made his England debut this year after switching codes from rugby league.