Ollie Chessum has re-signed with Leicester, keeping the forward at the Tigers until beyond next year’s World Cup.

In a major fillip for both the East Midlands club and England, Telegraph Sport understands that Chessum has signed a deal worth more than £500,000 a season for at least the next two years.

Chessum, 26, has emerged as one of Leicester and England’s most valuable players. Touted as a future international captain, the forward already has three caps for the British and Irish Lions and another 38 for his country.

Chessum is a member of England’s enhanced elite player squad (EPS) and has started seven of England’s eight Tests this year, switching from lock to blindside in the final game of the Six Nations against France and continuing there for the Nations Championship fixtures in July. The forward is expected to play a key role in England’s upcoming matches against Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

Lincolnshire-born Chessum was handed the Leicester captaincy when Geoff Parling, himself a former Tigers lock, arrived as head coach at Mattioli Woods Welford Road at the beginning of last season. Chessum led Leicester to a play-off defeat against Northampton last season but has remained a physical tone-setter, evidenced in the Tigers’ altercation with Henry Pollock during half-time of last Saturday’s victory against the Saints.

Chessum’s rise is even more remarkable given that he left the Leicester academy aged 15 and did not play at England age-grade level, except for the Counties Under-18s side. The forward joined Nottingham straight after school in 2019 and after impressing in a Leicester reserve-team game, signed for the Tigers in 2020. His brothers, Lewis and Dylan, have followed suit.

Under Steve Borthwick, then in charge of Leicester, Chessum won the Prem title in 2022, starting in the final victory against Saracens. Earlier that season, and just two years after signing with Leicester, Chessum made his England debut as a replacement in a 33-0 victory over Italy in Rome.

It has been a productive few days for Leicester having announced at the end of last week that scrum-half and vice-captain Jack van Poortvliet, an academy product and England enhanced EPS member like Chessum, had also re-signed with the club.

Leicester, who could lose centre Joseph Woodward at the end of the season, had expressed an interest in Seb Atkinson, but the Gloucester and England centre signed a new deal at Kingsholm on Thursday.