Headache for England as Sale confirm George Ford muscle tear

Alex Sanderson has issued a worrying Sale injury update on the recent sidelining of England pair George Ford and Bevan Rodd. Out-half Ford limped off with a quad muscle issue after just seven minutes of last Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership loss at Saracens, while loosehead Rodd has been nursing a post round one hamstring injury.

The Sale director of rugby confirmed that Ford has a quad tear but doesn't yet know how long he will be unavailable for and that Rodd isn’t expected to play again until next month’s Premiership Rugby Cup after grade three C damage to his hamstring.

With England set to train in the early part of next week ahead of the Autumn Nations Series, which starts on November 2 versus New Zealand, the bulletin from Manchester wasn’t a positive one for Test team boss Steve Borthwick.

Regarding Ford, who was England’s first choice No10 in the Guinness Six Nations at the start of the year before missing the summer tour with an achilles issue, Sanderson explained: “We haven’t got anything definite and concrete to tell you now. I’m sorry. He has pulled a muscle in his quad and we don’t know the length of time that will take to rehab at this point.

“George I can foresee being back (from) not an overly long lay-off given how he walked off the field, but that is the only subjective analysis I have got on it. I haven’t got anything else from the medics as of yet.

“I don’t think he could have played on (at Saracens). He walked off and he hobbled around a bit but just the initial reports from the scan, it is a tear, it was definitely the right thing to bring him off at that point of time.”

On a brighter note, Sanderson added that Sale’s contract extension talks with Ford have been going well. “He is up for renewal at Christmas and we are in negotiations for extending to the (2027) World Cup. Positive tones, I might add.”

Switching to Rodd, who was capped on England’s summer tour by Borthwick and was a Premiership round one player of the match versus Harlequins, the Sale boss said: “He has split his hamstring, it’s a grade three C injury. So he has split the hamstring but straight down the muscle so not through the muscle which allows for a quicker healing time. He will be back for the Premiership Cup.”

The casualty list at Sale is intriguing as the new professional game partnership between the 10 Premiership clubs and England is just a month old and Borthwick is soon expected to name upwards of 25 players on enhanced EPS contracts where the final medical/sports science say regarding those chosen will rest with England and not the clubs.

“Steve Borthwick came up to see me twice,” said Sanderson about the status of the Sharks/England relationship in recent months. “He is definitely pushing better alignment, better relationships with the DoRs and the players we are going to have to co-manage this year.

“On the back that conversation, I have been communicating through Richard Wigglesworth, who I am very close with, or Richard Hill, who I have got a good relationship with and he said just call me, just give me a call so I have been doing.

“Like I called him last night [Monday], spoke to him about it. We arranged to me anyway post this mini-camp they have got next week just to talk about our players and then to understand what the longer plan is for some of these lads stretching through to the World Cup.

“Of course I want England to do well at the World Cup because I am English but if I am not aligned with what the player wants and we just play him as long as can and as many times as we can, the player is going to see we haven’t got their best interests at heart as well.

“So it’s important that we are aligned with England and the PGP and the enhanced EPS that does come into effect. That relationship has happened before so I don’t think it is going to be a hard process when they do name any of our lads as an enhanced EPS.”