Sale Sharks Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson, has provided a promising injury update on England fly half George Ford. Whilst Ford will be unavailable for Sale’s Friday night fixture against Northampton Saints, Sanderson expects the talisman to be back in action in time for England’s Autumn Nations Series campaign.
By Charlie Elliott
Ford suffered a torn quad whilst kicking at goal, just seven minutes into Sale’s match against Saracens a fortnight ago. Speaking about key absentee George Ford, who continues his rehabilitation with the England squad, the Sale Director of Rugby said:
“He won’t be available next weekend, but he is training next week. It’s because he can’t do the full week – we wouldn’t deem anyone fit to push them through unless they can train a full week, that’s part of our policy, we don’t think it’s fair on the player really. He’s probably 10 days off.”
Sanderson would then speak about his likelihood of Ford featuring for England:
“If I were England and someone who can train and contribute, I’d want George in my squad.”
With injuries already taking its toll on the Sharks this season, there would be some clarity on the recent injuries to wing Arron Reed and back row Jean-Luc DuPreez situations:
“Jean-Luc is still not there, I don’t want to give to much away. Jean Luc is still not there this week. We just want to make sure that they’re in a god place, especially when it comes to the head and risk it. He’s got a stiff neck, we feel like it could be his neck giving him headaches, but because of the nature that he was concussed, we’re going to get him to see a specialist doctor tomorrow to get that checked out, just to make sure.
Reedy could come through this weekend, still yet to make a call on that because he’s playing so well.”
There would also be some positive news regarding long term absentees Nick Schonert, Raffi Quirke and WillGriff John:
“Raffi could be back for Bath, Nick Schonert is likely to be back end of the Premiership Cup best case. Worst case he’s good for Leicester, which is great news. He’s running around.
WillGriff John you know he tore his bicep so that’s still knitting together and the best hope is that he will be back either before Bath or the Prem cup games, so they’re all really close.”
Sale Sharks travel to Franklin Gardens on Friday to face Northampton Saints, with the Sharks’ Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson keen to emphasise how much his team is ready for the tough test, despite the injury set-backs.
The recent return of flanker Tom Curry has massively boosted Sale, with Alex Sanderson talking about his previous performance against Newcastle:
“He’s back, Tom Curry’s back. He showed that at the weekend, his double efforts were phenomenal, 18 tackles, couple of turnovers, and that’s in 60 minutes of rugby, topping the tackle count, so all that physical intensity that we know from Tom Curry was there in spades.
Talking about the challenge ahead against Northampton Saints, Sanderson said:
“We’ve prepped them well so far this week, in terms of how it could feel down at Franklin’s Gardens, under the cosh, in the tumble dryer.
“They have an ability at times to just up the pace, the tempo of the game, exiting and they go a really quick line-out attack and then they spread it through and you just feel like you’re under it for such an amount of time. Then they end up scoring a couple tries and you’re like ‘oh when did that happen, how’d that happen’ when in large parts you’re really in control of the game.
“We’ve tried to prep them for that sort of feeling so it’s not novel, and there’s ways you can do that – repeat exit pressure, fatigue that you can put them in those kind of places and make them fight out of it.”
Sanderson would then go on to speak about whether now is a good time to play Northampton, following the Saints’ recent 24-8 derby defeat away at Leicester Tigers, he said:
“I don’t think they’re going to lose much confidence, the calibre of team that they are. They back themselves, being able to roll over in in game instances was probably one of their best qualities last year.
“I can’t see one loss affecting their confidence but with the manner that Leicester went at them, I think they’re going to get a spike from them physically. I think they’re going to lean back into the set piece more, by way of selection and also by way of preparation. I think we will see a different side to their crowd. We’re expecting that. I don’t think that’s a negative thing.
Let’s have the best of them for us to put our best out there and let the chips fall where they do.”
The Sale boss then went on to talk about the potential impact of the next two tough away tests, against Northampton and Exeter Chiefs will have on their season:
“With the number of games (in a season) any run of two or three games is season defining. It happens to be that it’s two of the best teams away from home, I’m not going to say that this season hinges on these two, you never know that until you get to the end point.
