After a summer shoulder surgery kept him sidelined, Slade is now poised to make his first appearance of the season, with England coach Richard Wigglesworth keen to see how he performs in the Premiership clash.
With England's showdown against New Zealand on November 2nd looming, Slade has the perfect stage to prove his fitness.
"Henry is heading back to Exeter because we all want him to get some minutes under his belt," Wigglesworth explained. "He'll train with them and then get some game time this weekend."
With 65 England caps under his belt, Slade's experience is hard to overlook. "He's a senior figure at Exeter now," Wigglesworth added. "He's kept growing, and that's why he's so important to the teams he plays for."
All eyes will be on the Sandy Park crowd to see if Slade can make a statement ahead of that crucial clash against the All Blacks.
Owen Farrell names four rugby players he can't stand, including a World Cup-winner
Former England captain Owen Farrell is never afraid of sharing an opinion or two – especially when it's about someone he doesn't particularly like.
The Bath lock won the last of his 24 caps for England back in 2016, which could have a lot to do with his relationship with the current England captain.
He revealed: “On the pitch, I struggle a lot with Owen Farrell. We just don't see eye to eye on a lot of things,
"He hates me with a passion. Despite my earthy roots, he thinks I am a posh c***. He hates that. I bagged rugby league once jovially. I was saying it to take the piss kind of thing, 'a bloody sport for the peasants'. He f**kin' hated it.
“He had a bit of a shout at me and went off to the toilet and I followed him.
"We all had a drink or two after the game but we didn't need to get carried away with this. I was in the urinal behind the door and he was three or four down and as I got in his dad walked in as well, he was coaching at the time. He was, 'I don't want to fuckin' hear it' or something like that and as he walked out he went to open the door and slam it into the back of me. There was like a stop on the floor so it hit the stop and almost clocked him back…
"We never really addressed it after that. That was where it started and it was like a drunken little bit of argy that went too far. He is an incredibly competitive athlete and he is also very f**kin' good, he has got high standards. He is a very competitive athlete and in order to be that good, you have to flirt on the wrong side of competitive.
"So whenever we play each other there is always some element in the game where one of us is running at the other one or we are trying to bang each other. There always seems to be an element of that to it. I am sure he is like, I don't even know that Dave is playing."
