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Leicester head coach Michael Cheika says reclaiming the Ed Slater Cup from Gloucester will feel like bringing the popular former player home with them again. Sunday will be the fifth time the two clubs have played for the piece of silverware, which is named after the former Cherry and Whites and Tigers player who retired in 2022 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease [MND]. Leicester won the first three Premiership battles for the cup, but Gloucester hold it after overcoming Tigers in their last meeting in March.
For Cheika, Sunday's match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road will be the Australian's first involvement in a fixture of huge emotional significance. "We don’t have that cup, which means we have to bring our player, bring Ed back to us," Cheika told BBC Radio Leicester. "I've never met Ed, but I can see when we have talked about it and discussed it during the week that it is an important thing for the lads here.
"When it has that little bit of extra meaning and our ability to have that emotion and control that emotion in the game will be really important." Slater, 36, has been living with MND, a degenerative condition that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord, since being diagnosed in 2022. And the former lock has become the latest high-profile sports person to raise awareness of the condition.
After the death Rob Burrow in June, more than four years after being diagnosed, Slater gave his "thanks" to the rugby league great for giving a voice to him and many other people with MND. Ben Youngs, who played alongside Slater for the duration of the lock's seven years at Tigers, said his former team-mate "continues to inspire" them just as he did as a fiercely combative athlete on the pitch. "It's proper humbling when this week comes around because you are reminded what a special guy he was in and around this environment," Youngs said.
"To now see him fighting this battle, which is incredibly cruel, it’s a tough week emotionally for a lot of guys.".
