after injuring his hamstring in late 2014, manu would not play for the tigers again until january 2016 , making his comeback off the bench in the 30–27 east midlands derby win over northampton saints. he played for the rest of the 2015/16 season. however, his injury problems continued and he was sidelined for most of the 2016/17 season with knee problems, making his comeback in the first game of the 2017/18, only to suffer a new injury to his other knee. in a bid to cure his injury problems tuilagi visited a samoan witch doctor in november 2017, the witch doctor claimed to have found three spirits had married tuilagi and were causing the injuries, and massaged tuilagi for two hours a day for four days to block the spirits.