Deacon on Leicester's radar

Leicester boss Richard Cockerill has confirmed former Tiger Brett Deacon is one of the players he is currently looking at to bolster his squad.

Deacon is currently a free agent after being released by Gloucester, with the 30-year-old having been strongly linked to a return at Welford Road.

Deacon, the brother of Leicester and England lock Louis, made 87 Premiership appearances for the Tigers before joining Gloucester in 2010.

With back-rowers Tom Croft, Jordan Crane and Craig Newby all set to miss the start of the season, Deacon could now be offered the chance to rejoin the club.

However Cockerill admits he is also looking at a number of other players to offer back-row cover.

Cockerill told the Leicester Mercury: "Brett Deacon is on the market but there are 160 players who have not got contracts professionally, so there are a lot of people looking for employment.

"We are looking at lots of back-rowers and Brett is one of those. He has played a lot of Aviva Premiership rugby and knows us very well.

"It's just whether he is the right fit for us and whether that is what he wants to do. At the moment, he is just one of several players we are looking at."

out of interest does anyone know if the list of out of contract profesional rugby players is made public anywhere?

With back-rowers Tom Croft, Jordan Crane and Craig Newby all set to miss the start of the season

In Cockerill's full interview he only saws that Newby and Croft will miss the start of the season and that they have to be careful with Crane so that he appraoches match fitness properly as he had serious surgery. I think Crane is still on to return at the start of the season, though his role may be initially restrained in order for him to build up his fitness gradually.

Current backrow options at Tigers:

6.Croft, Mafi
7.Salvi, Newby, Woods
8.Crane, Waldrom, de Carpienter

Slater could slot into the backrow as well if required (his favourite position is 6). There's a few academy prospects on their way through but not sure they are ready. A year long deal for Brett might be a good idea. Rumours are LW are also interested though.

Well sam you could always pop up North for Wilson, Tui'Fua, Hogg or the beast that is Robinson...if your short

Maybe in a season or two we'll come up for Robinson or maybe Welch next season. Right now we're just after experienced cover.

Personally I'd rather we used the players we have as there are some promising youngsters in de Carpentier (former England Uni team and England 7s) he is a big and pacey 6/8 we've not seen much of and then the academy captain Jake Albon is a ball carrying 8 I've not had chance to see in person but his reviews are very good (fair try scoring rate as well). We'll probably only be desperate enough to rely on them during the LV Cup at other times they'd probably be benching only in the case of a couple more injuries.