Samoa international Tuilagi comes in after injury to Johne Murphy, but the other 21 players on duty for the thrilling victory over Harlequins at Welford Road last Saturday keep their places for the trip to the West Country to face the league leaders.
Head coach Marcelo Loffreda said: The team showed great resilience and character in the victory last Saturday and I think the players can take a lot of confidence from that.
I said we were not going to give up while we still had an opportunity to qualify for the play-offs. Now it is in our own hands again and we have another opportunity.
Gloucester have had a good season, they have a strong team and they will have a lot of confidence, but now it all depends on what happens in this game.
Leicester Tigers (vs Gloucester, Sunday 4.30pm)
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Tom Varndell
13 Danny Hipkiss
12 Aaron Mauger
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Andy Goode
9 Harry Ellis
1 Boris Stankovich
2 Mefin Davies
3 Julian White
4 Marco Wentzel
5 Ben Kay
6 Martin Corry (c)
7 Ben Herring
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
16 George Chuter
17 Marcos Ayerza
18 Richard Blaze
19 Tom Croft
20 Christophe Laussucq
21 Sam Vesty
22 Ayoola Erinle