By Will Kelleher For The Daily Mail
Published: 22:34 GMT, 25 March 2019 | Updated: 22:37 GMT, 25 March 2019
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Leicester's England stars Manu Tuilagi, Jonny May, Ben Youngs and Ellis Genge face slogging it out in the Championship next year because they have no relegation escape clause in their contracts.
With five games to go in the Premiership season, the Tigers are 10th and only five points above bottom club Newcastle.
Sportsmail has learned that very few of the Leicester squad have clauses built into their contracts allowing them to quit if the club goes down to the Championship.
Manu Tuilagi is one of four England stars who could be playing in the Championship next year
In what has been described as a ‘car-crash’ situation by one source, several members of Eddie Jones’s World Cup squad might have to stay and honour their contracts by playing in the Championship next season.
Tuilagi, 27, signed a two-year contract earlier this month and does not have a release clause written into it. Prop Genge, 24, and wing May, 29, have a year left to run on their Tigers deals — having signed in 2017 — and prop Dan Cole, 31, has longer.
It is believed fly-half George Ford, 26, is one of few players who does have a release clause.
Jonny May (pictured), Ben Youngs and Ellis Genge are the other three Leicester players who have featured for England who do not have relegation release clauses in their club contracts
But sources have