ALEX SANDERSON MEDIA SESSION 22/11/2023

TOM CURRY

“He needs a clear-out of his hip that will put him out for the rest of the season. This is the only option. He has been back down to London to have further extensive x-rays under movement with a different consultant and this is the best thing for him in the short-term. I know it sounds long-term, the season, but it’s not. He is still a young lad and it’s the best thing for him in the short-term to ensure he is able to be more robust moving forward to train and progress his game the way he wants to.

“He has just got some wear and tear issues around his socket and a little bone that needs shaving off, cleaning up. My understanding is there are three procedures you have can have on your hip of this nature; one is this, which is the least invasive. Then you can have a resurfacing, a metal resurfacing, and then you can have a hip replacement, so this is the better of lesser evils I guess.

“The level it [the stiffness] is at in this point of time is new, hence why we have had to send him to specialists; it hadn’t flagged up to this degree until this point in his career. There has always been hip stiffness there. There has always been an element of managing his load because he will just empty the tank and drink deep from the well and this time he was doing the same thing but just not recovering and wasn’t able to do it again and again. All of the sudden the red flags were out that maybe there was something deeper here and apparently there is.”

“I was more upset than he was. He had reframed himself, was like, ‘Okay, this is fine’. I literally see it as a bump in the road for him. He was extremely positive. I’m sure there will be ebbs and flows over the next four or five months and I hope to be part of that journey with him as we get him back to where he needs to be. There was no chink in the invincible armour that is Tom Curry, it was like, ‘Right, let’s get it done. Let’s go’.

“I was surprised how quickly he turned himself around. It’s not old news for him now, he has had at least a week to get to grips with what could happen and this is by no means the worst that could happen and he is very positive about getting back and getting back in a Sale shirt. Hopefully towards the back end of this season but if not, he will be good to go next.”

“Tom’s influence on a game is huge, not just on a weekend but how he drives standards in the week every week. We are so fortunate to have such strength in depth in the back-five of the scrum. Tom will be around. He wants to help, he wants to contribute in a similar fashion that George did when he was injured and improve his communication skills and understand how he can contribute without actually doing it through his actions on the grass.”

LOOKING INTO BRINGING IN COVER IN LIGHT OF CURRY’S INJURY

“We are leaning into the possibility of whether we need cover, because we have still got a lot of strength there. We do still have a couple of injuries in Jean-Luc (du Preez), who is going to come back in the next few weeks, and Tom Ellis. So if we are looking at someone at the moment we are thinking it would be for short-term because we are two injuries away from playing academy players. That’s unfair to them.

“So we are just looking at how we are tracking at the moment, seeing what is out there. We won’t be able to get a replacement for Tom because there is no one like him but someone who can help us rotate and manage the load over the next six weeks because I reckon then you can fire into the end of January and after that mid-season break, you have got 12 games left, six by way of knockout.

“That is the home straight, so it would really be in the short-term between now and the end of January if we needed someone and we weren’t tracking so well over the next week or two.”

AGUSTIN CREEVY

“I am not shy in showing my affiliation to the players. He is brilliant. He wasn’t supposed to come in that first week after the World Cup. I did give him that week off but because we were so short due to injuries I had to drag him away from Reading whilst his wife had solicitor exams in London. He came up on a plane on Thursday morning to do the team run and he slotted in so easily. We are able to rotate Gus, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tommy Taylor. Rotation will come in the coming weeks because you have to. He understands it is a team game so we already have that level of trust where so long as I am honest with him he is very much on board with everything we are doing.

“I am surprised how he doesn’t get injured. Not only does he play every week he trains every week. I don’t know how he quite does it. He very much still loves the game. He helps the other players and the youngsters to get better. He is a lot bigger and thicker than he looks on camera. He is a sturdy character. He is a great signing and I am chuffed to have him on board.”

SAM JAMES

“I don’t want to lose Sam. He has been an integral part of this place forever. If he were to move on for personal reasons and it would be for a lifestyle change from what I understand. This is his last opportunity to get a contract somewhere else to experience the world on the back of rugby. They are valid reasons. He has got to weigh that up against looking back in five or six years’ time and seeing what he missed out on having created what he has created here. That is his choice because I think we will be competitive in terms of what is on the market by way of salary. So it would come down to what he and his wife want to do for a lifestyle choice going forward. I spoke to him the other day and said we need to talk about this. It wasn’t really on his radar as he is enjoying his rugby but you have to plan because he is out of contract next summer.

“It would be nice for us to know sooner rather than later what the future holds by the new year but I have not put any deadline on it. I have told him to go away and discuss it with his wife. This year due to the nature of the season most things will get wrapped up by that February break.”

ASHER OPOKU-FORDJOUR

“I have seen him do things that I haven’t seen other 19-year-olds do. I haven’t seen every 19-year-old but I played with a few like David Flatman who was an exceptional talent. It is rare you get them that young that are able to hold Adam Brocklebank out, who is their first-choice loosehead, who Nick Schonert has had problems with in the past. To scrummage is his first job and Asher showed he could do that at that level. We will have to test him again on another day but it his dynamism at tighthead with fast-twitch fibres which is so rare. He can scrum and sidestep so watch this space. We have got to keep him fit. I am very excited about him."

INJURY UPDATE

Tom O’Flaherty- should be back this week

Jean-Luc du Preez- should be back in the next few weeks

Manu Tuilagi- “close this week but no cigar”, should be fit for Europe mid-December

Nick Schonert- bursa on his foot, long-term thing to manage, available for selection this week

Simon McIntyre- stinger in his neck, wasn’t able to scrummage last week, available for selection this week

Raffi Quirke- really close to a return to action, has been training in non-contact, semi-contact stuff, could be involved next week if not week after

Luke James, Telusa Veianu- should be fit around Europe in mid-December

OTHER NEWS

Tom Curry set to have surgery week after next

George Ford back this after being rested last week

Not surprised by Bath’s form at the start of the season

Challenge for all players coming back from the World Cup

Important to show proper care towards players to prolong players’ careers, important to look after yourself

World Cup jokers in the French market knocking around, a few clubs pushing close to the salary cap so you can explore those opportunities, looking in South Africa because of success we have had with South Africans- those are the three areas being looked at

We weren’t at physical best against Newcastle, element of complacency, weren’t at emotional level that will be needed on Friday against Bath