Matt O’Connor says he is “incredibly pleased” for Manu Tuilagi that the citing against him has been dismissed.

Tuilagi was cited following the Champions Cup game against Munster Rugby at Welford Road on Sunday.

It was  alleged Tuilagi tackled Munster flanker Chris Cloete dangerously in the 49th minute of the match in contravention of Law 10.4 (e).

However, he was cleared by an independent Disciplinary Committee and is free to play against Saracens at Welford Road on Christmas Eve (kick-off 3pm).

Tigers head coach O’Connor was speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon to preview the game against Saracens when the news came through.

O’Connor said: “Manu won’t miss any rugby, which is incredibly pleasing for him and for the group.

“I’m really thankful for Manu because off the back of his much-publicised lay-off from the game now that he’s back fit and got through an 80 minutes on his first game back, you’d be devastated for him and the group if he was to miss games with a ban,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Thankfully sanity prevailed.

“There was no malicious intent and it wasn’t particularly high. It looked like it was a pretty sound tackle from our perspective, but that’s the role of the independent citing commissioner to have a look at all those incidents and see if there is anything in them, and thankfully there wasn’t.”

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