England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is “touch and go” to make his return for Exeter in time for the start of the Premiership Rugby season.
The 22-year-old has not played for his club since 21 December after dislocating his shoulder against Sale.
But he has suffered a hamstring injury during pre-season and has not taken part in England’s training camp this week.
The winger had surgery in February after re-injuring his shoulder while training with the national side ahead of the Six Nations.
The injury led to friction between Exeter and England – the national side have the final say on centrally contracted players such as Feyi-Waboso – after the Chiefs had hoped he would be operated on in early January.
Fellow England player Henry Slade is back to fitness after injuring his hand while on tour to Argentina in July.
“Manny stayed in the England tour right to the end and then obviously after his five weeks off he’s had relatively little pre-season time with us and we have changed a fair a bit around our calling structure and the way we play attack-wise,” Baxter told BBC Sport.
“He’s going to probably be more of a challenge than Henry who, even though he’s not been able to do full contact with his hand, he’s actually been in for quite a long period of pre-season because obviously he left the England tour early.
“So he’s probably more up to speed with how we want to play, what we want to do. He’s had more days on the training field with us so Henry’s probably easier to fit in than Manny.
“But at the same time, as most people would probably know, Manny’s strengths are probably not what he does in a system or a structure, it’s just what he does one on one and the things he can make happen.”
