Sale: Tom Curry could play before end of the season despite hip op

Alex Sanderson has revealed that Tom Curry could be fit and available for any end-of-season finals if Sale qualify for them. The England openside returned from the Rugby World Cup to learn that he required season-ending hip surgery.

It was 120 days ago, November 21 to be precise, when the Sharks came clean about the latest injury setback to affect the 25-year-old. After arriving back from France, any time that he trained with any intensity in Manchester resulted in him stiffening up.

Expert medical opinion decided that an operation was needed to mend the damage. “Tom needs a clear out of his hip that will put him out for the rest of this season; this is the only option,” explained the Sale director of rugby at the time.

“He has just got some wear and tear issues around his socket and a little bone that needs shaving off, cleaning up.”

With the Sharks now poised to play their first Gallagher Premiership game since January 28 this Sunday when they visit Bath, Sanderson has resumed his weekly media briefings.

"I have a bottle of wine in the car, I'm off to his house after this to level, to chat with him…"

– Alex Sanderson will catch up with Manu Tuilagi on Wednesday evening after he decided to leave Sale for Bayonne, with Liam Heagney 🎙️ #GallagherPrem #TOP14 #EnglandRugby #rugby pic.twitter.com/pelJd6gq1A

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 20, 2024

He soon explained the incredible progress Curry has made in recent months in getting to the stage where he might yet feature before the conclusion of the 2023/24 club season, which ends with a June 8 final at Twickenham some weeks after the Challenge Cup final at Tottenham.

If he does make it back by then, it would potentially put him up for England tour selection as they are set to face Japan on June 22 with the two-game series in New Zealand starting on July 6.

Asked how the Curry rehabilitation had gone since his winter hip operation, Sanderson said: “He was away in the wilderness rehabbing for a few months and we had seen him come and go out and the nature of Tom is all in or he needs that space.

“We ended up having a few days off at the start of the Six Nations and it was a couple of weeks before when I put it to all our injured players, of which there was a room full, how much more could we contribute as a group.

“Looking around the room and just looking at the experience, the likes of Jonny Hill, Tom Ellis, Bevan Rodd, Ross Harrison, Tom Curry, it was can you contribute more, tell me how?

“He is away in Malta at present with his missus, but he didn’t have any time off (in recent months). He was in rehabbing and when I come back in, him and Bevan Rodd sat me down and said we have got some ideas about how we can make this environment better? We want player meetings, we want a player’s group, we want to be able to provide better, more feedback, we want to hold ourselves more accountable – and he spearheaded that.

“That coincided with his return to fitness. So he is running now and if he does come back at the end of this season, of which there is a slim possibility, you want a team and a club he has had some influence over and so from being out in the wilderness, I feel like I’m looking over my shoulder; he is ready to tell me how I can do the meeting better, how we can run sessions better on the feedback of the players.

“He is very much back in the fold in terms of his contribution. He is bombing around, his hip looks good. His brother (Ben) is back in training today [Wednesday] as well, which is great. And he has outside chance; I’d say he might make a final or two if we get there.”

The commitment of Curry to his rehab has left Sanderson in awe. “His ability to reframe things and set a new horizon and then break it down into small achievable goals is unsurpassed… If anyone was going to get over a career-threatening injury, it was going to be him and seemingly he is doing it. I’m not surprised, I’m in awe. He can just chunk it down because he is that kind of man.

“He is demanding, he holds people to account which he wanted to do with the player’s group because he holds himself to account to extremely high standards. As a leader, you have to back up your words and he does. Not to say that he doesn’t turn up late now and again or he doesn’t fill in his wellness.

“The lads cheer when he has to do dice rolls in our discipline sessions we have on a Tuesday afternoon because they want to see him get done for his minor indiscretions but he takes it in good humour, cracks on and serves his fines as and when he receives.

“But I would say he is demanding because he knows what it takes more than anyone. Like, getting hit on that hip in the World Cup must have been unbelievably painful and walking like an old man in the mornings and pushing yourself to get England to where they were and clear his name on the back of that Bongi incident, what’s not to respect about that?”