Sale suffer double injury blow with Ben Curry coming off worse

Sale have suffered a double blow with Ben Curry set to be out for three months with a shoulder injury that may require surgery while No8 Dan du Preez will be missing for a month with a broken bone in his hand.

Both back row players were injured in the 15-13 Gallagher Premiership defeat at Newcastle and will be missing for the start of Sale’s Heineken Champions Cup campaign which starts against Toulon on December 12. It means Jean-Luc du Preez, Dan’s twin brother, will be in the back row for Sale’s trip to London Irish on Sunday.

Curry was hurt in the final minutes of a game last Friday at Kingston Park where Sale saw victory snatched away from them by a Toby Flood try. He has had the shoulder scanned and it will now be assessed by a specialist. 

Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby, will deploy Cobus Wiese in the back row with du Preez and fit-again captain Jono Ross against the Irish in Brentford.

Diamond said: “Ben was hurt in the last play of the game at Newcastle and has been scanned. We are waiting for the surgeon to assess it and we are not too optimistic at this moment in time. Dan has a broken bone in his hand. It is reasonably stable and hasn’t moved. He could be two to four weeks. 

"There is a little bit of frustration but these things do happen and we have to get around it. Two injuries in one game is the sport we play, but Ben hasn’t had any shoulder injury before and it looks like he could be out for three months.

“Jean-Luc will play in the back row this weekend and JP du Preez has arrived (from the Cheetahs) and won’t be available this week but will be the week after. That frees up the lock situation and in a couple of weeks the cavalry will arrived with Tom Curry back after a rest after England while Josh Beaumont should be ready for the Christmas period.”