The Sale news from South Africa that should concern title rivals Exeter, Bristol and Quins

Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber has let slip that sidelined Sale second row Lood de Jager could yet feature in the Manchester club's bid to win their first English Premiership title since 2006. The 2019 World Cup-winning lock has been out of action since a late March training ground accident when he suffered a fracture on landing after fetching a ball in the air at Carrington and the prognosis was that he would arrive home in June for the Lions tour without playing for his club again this season.

However, Nienaber has revealed that the rehabilitation of de Jager is ahead of plan at Sale and he could potentially feature in the knockout stages of the tournament which stages its semi-finals on the weekend of June 19 and then the showpiece Twickenham final on June 26. 

"Lood is going well," said Nienaber during a midweek Springboks virtual media session from Bloemfontein. "The last feedback that I have got is that his rehab is on track and he is actually a little bit ahead of where they thought he would be.

"As a physio, (I understand) one week you are hitting all your markers and the next week when you move to a little more explosive stuff and more power there might be a little of a setback and then you have to pull back a little bit on the rehab.

"But if you hit the markers and you progress and there are no complications, Lood, as I understand it, if Sale make the final of the Premiership he might be up for selection to play.

"Alex (Sanderson) must be happy with his form, he must be tick all the conditioning boxes and he must be medically fit and stuff (for that to happen). That will be up to Sale but as I understand it his progression is currently spot on and if it continues like it is currently and they make the final or the semi-final he might be in a position to participate in that. 

"Lood is going along very well and RG (Snyman, the Munster lock) was doing fantastic. I saw his GPS stats of last week before the burns accident happened and it is what it is, he has got a little bit of a setback and we just wait for the wound to heal and then we will assess him when he gets over here."