How Leicester's Ilione juggles time in scrubs and scrums

Emeka Ilione emerged from the Leicester Tigers academy

Emeka Ilione knows there are "no shortcuts" to get him where he wants to go.

He was Leicester Tigers' breakout star last season who is now in his final year as a medical student.

The 23-year-old back-row has spent as much time in blue scrubs over the past few years than he has in the green, red and white of the Tigers.

Ilione says he has got used to bouncing between hospital wards and Leicester's home of Mattioli Woods Welford Road, where he has forged a fearsome reputation as a ball-carrier and grabbed the attention of England bosses familiar with his juggling act.

The former England Under-20 captain was called up to the senior national team for a training camp for the first time in May.

England head coach Steve Borthwick was Tigers boss when, as a teenager coming through Leicester's academy, Ilione got the news that he had been accepted into medical school at the University of Nottingham.

"The club made it very clear that as long as I'm working hard and as long as I communicate early, it's something that they would support me and help me through," Ilione said of efforts to juggle his playing career and medical studies.

"The university has done exactly the same - as long as I communicate early and I'm proactive and I'm staying on top of the academics and placement and doing everything I need to do, then they're willing to support me.

"If you're going to be a doctor you can't have shortcuts to it. I get leeway in terms of I go in on Saturdays and Sundays to pick up placements, but I still have to do the same as everyone else. #

"There's not a case of me getting special treatment in that regard."

It was three years ago that Mansfield-born Ilione spoke to BBC Radio Leicester about contemplating a future in epidemiology or cardiology, while pursing what was then still only an embryonic rugby career at Leicester.

He made his Premiership debut for the club in January 2023 and by December had earned his first league start - although it was another campaign in which he saw more action for the Tigers in the second-string cup competition than the league itself.

That all changed under head coach Michael Cheika last season, with Ilione making 17 league appearances while also starting in a European Champions Cup match for for the first time.

He was constantly used as a wrecking ball off the bench, and that's the role he played when he stormed over for a late try in June's Premiership Grand Final to set up a thrilling – if ultimately futile – attempt to overpower Bath in the dying moments of the decider at Twickenham.

Ilione says the impact he made at the national stadium that day was only partly down to how he has learned to throw his weight around – all 115kg, packed into his 6ft 2in (1.88m) frame.

"I'm probably the strongest and fittest I've ever been, which obviously helps," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"But it's sort of the mindset around when you're carrying - having the internal belief that you are a good carrier and that you can get through the contact and that the team needs you to go forward, so you do go forward."

In three Prem games this season, Ilione is already being relied on to do that more than ever before.

He has started every league game under new coach Geoff Parling, with two appearances at flanker before being moved to number eight in Saturday's East Midlands derby defeat by Northampton Saints.

Ilione is relishing the "intensity and standards" being demanded by the rookie head coach, and added that their one-to-one work on "details and accuracy" has helped him find "that right headspace" when playing.

"I'm someone who likes to overthink, so if I can have as little information in my head and just play on instinct, then that's the perfect place for me," Ilione said.