Sale confirm England player broke Alex Sanderson's ribs

Sale Sharks have confirmed that an England player injured Alex Sanderson in training this week, placing the club in the unusual position of having their head coach on the injured list.

Sanderson has sustained a rib injury after a training ground collision with one of his players. The incident occurred during a session in Carrington this week and the club say that Sanderson has fractured several ribs.

Sharks physio Navdeep Sandhu was at pains to point out that the player involved - England star Tom Roebuck - failed to make the gain line despite bashing up his boss.

“Alex got ran into by a player and to be fair, the player did not make the gain line, but Alex got a couple of rib fractures for his troubles so he will be top of the list on Monday morning.

“It was Tom Roebuck, he did not make the gain line.”

On a more serious note, Sale Sharks fly-half George Ford will undergo tests after suffering an injury just seven minutes into their 45-26 Gallagher Premiership defeat to Saracens.

Ford left the field shortly after attempting a long-range penalty at StoneX Stadium.

Despite trailing 13-12 at halftime, Saracens bounced back with two tries from Elliot Daly and scores from Tobias Elliott and Jamie George to secure the win. Alex Lozowski, filling in for Owen Farrell who moved to Racing 92, contributed 22 points from the tee.

Sale Sharks currently sit eighth on the Gallagher Premiership table after the opening two rounds. Under Sanderson, Sale have reached the league play-offs in three out of four seasons, including making the 2023 final.

“Our mentality for the last 10 years has been underdogs," Roebuck told RugbyPass recently. "but I don’t think we want to hold onto that forever. We want to be an established team that people fear and know are looking to do well.

“To be honest the public perception of us doesn’t worry us too much. We look inwards, not outwards, and we focus on what the lads in the team believe they can do and we all think in this club that we can go on and win a Premiership."

additional reporting Press Association