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Tom Curry awaiting Harley Street verdict after latest injury setback

Tom Curry at the Rugby World Cup with England (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Sale boss Alex Sanderson has revealed he is awaiting a specialist opinion from London on the severity of the latest injury setback suffered by Tom Curry. The England back-rower has yet to feature in the Gallagher Premiership since his return to Manchester following his country’s third-place finish last month at the Rugby World Cup in France.

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Curry went into that tournament with an ankle injury that prevented him from featuring in any of the four-game Summer Nations Series.

He was then red-carded just three minutes into the tournament opener versus Argentina in Marseille on September 9 but he returned in October to play a crucial part in the matches versus Samoa, Fiji, South Africa and Argentina, culminating in a bronze medal win on October 27.

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Eighteen days on from that Stade de France victory, Curry has now visited a specialist in London’s Harley Street to check on the extent of the hip injury that has prevented him from making his first appearance of the club season in England with Sale.

“I’m waiting on a specialist assessment on his hip,” explained Sanderson on Tuesday afternoon when hosting his club’s weekly media briefing ahead of this Friday’s league clash versus Newcastle at the AJ Bell. “He has got a dicky hip, that’s the medical term for it.

“He came in (from the World Cup) and was alright but as soon as we trained with any intensity he stiffened up and it took us a while to free him up again and these are some chronic micro-tears in his labrum. So of them chronic, maybe one or two of them from the World Cup.

“We have to wait and see until this specialist tells us exactly what he has done and how he has done it and what kind of rehabilitation and treatment he needs.

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“I’m not giving you anything clear because I don’t know myself, but it could be as little as a couple of weeks to rehab it because it has shown up well this week; it could be a lot longer depending on how much wear and tear there might be on his bone.

“He was in Harley Street this morning. I have had a missed call from our head of medical whilst I have been in meetings upstairs and I have run straight from that straight down to here because I knew I was late for you guys [the media], so I haven’t heard.”

Whatever the length of this latest setback in an injury-hit 2023 for Curry, Sanderson is backing the 25-year-old to bounce back. “I don’t think anyone who trains and plays like he does is ever going to avoid some kind of achilles heel, that’s about the best way you can put it and I mean that in the metaphorical sense.

“It’s human. Something is going to give at some point and he has to manage it. How you manage it – and every club player goes through an injury crisis – will determine the longevity of his career moving forward, so that is the key and we have spoken about that.

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“This is not tragic, this is not career-ending by any stretch, but it is another speed bump in what has been a really bumpy road for him this year. He has got to get over that but let’s look at this injury in isolation and not feel like you are tainted with bad luck because that is what it could feel like for him and then he can get down and all that stuff.

“It will turn, his luck will turn. We will put Humpty Dumpty back together again, you will see him soon enough, hopefully by Christmas, and then we will take the long-term effect of this as and when we find them.”

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Being sidelined once more will surely test the mental resolve of Curry. Sanderson, though, offered up the inspiring story of his own older brother Pat from the mid-noughties as evidence that things can change for the better for Curry in the long run.

“I don’t work too closely on the psychological side with Tom because he wants to keep that separate from the conversations we have with him around his performance, but I know he does work hard on it. I did have a conversation with him and from personal experience is the best way you can talk or discuss these things.

“Like my brother got injured for two years at Quins, both ankles operated on, got his contract struck off, said please just give me the money to live off which they did, got back into the side, got players’ player of the year the year after that and captained England the year after that.

“That happening to people by one degree of separation from me left me to say, ‘Tom, this is just part of your journey’. So I can speak to him in that sense and hopefully try and calm him down because human nature is to think the worst, this is happening again and it’s spiraling. Well actually no, you’re not alone here.

“That is the nature of the conversation I had with him last week and I’m certainly going to be in his plans long term because whatever future treatment he needs we have to be strategic on that if he does need it. We spoke about that but on the back of that he just gets on with it.”

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Comments

4 Comments
F
FC 600 days ago

Injury?

Did a Springbok villian hurt his fragile feelings again?

J
Jon 599 days ago

Ref! ref! what do I do when I desparately need attention?

J
JD 600 days ago

I hope he’s seeing a psychiatrist as well.

S
SL 600 days ago

Hope the consultant checked his hearing too!!

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A
AllyOz 4 hours ago
Has Quade Cooper solved a Lions riddle for Australia?

I also think that the lack of layers in the Australian system and the short season length also contributes to our lack of player development. All of the “three amigos” were in the Australian side from a very early age. We have Super Rugby but it is only 15 weeks long now (if you don’t make the finals - which our sides don’t typically do). And we only have 4 - 5 teams so, for 10s, there is only 1 or 2 spots up for grabs and one player is going to get most of the time. I imagine, in Europe where you have a longer season and then European Championship and then, in France, also a professional division below, a player of ability will get more than 15 games at the top level. There are tiers to progress through etc. The current 10 for France, on the All Blacks tour, has had 120 Top 14 games - we are putting blokes into a Wallabies squad after one or two good seasons (30 SR games at the most) and for others, like Sua’ali’i even sooner (but he did play at a high level in another code so he has had some time to develop).


We lack a tier or level, where players can develop that other comps have so that (1) they don’t need to be thrown in early (2) if they take a bit longer to develop there is a place for them to do it. You either have a place in one of the 4 (previously 5) sides or you go overseas, or you play at an amateur level. And also, you don’t have to push an older player out because, if you reach 24 or 25 and you haven’t made the Wallabies (or you aren’t a regular) then the prospect of playing OS is too financially enticing.

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