Possible surgery puts Ben Curry at heart of Sale and England tug-of-war

England flanker Ben Curry may need further surgery and a six-week lay-off to solve a hamstring injury that could threaten his availability for the Autumn Test matches.

Curry, whose brother Tom is recovering from hand surgery, limped out of Sale Sharks’ 28-16 defeat at Bath with the hamstring still causing concern and Alex Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby, has admitted that it may require further medical intervention. The problem revolves around the suture site of a previous operation, and the flanker can either continue to deal with the pain or opt for the operation that would require a six-week layoff.

Sanderson accepts that England will have a major say in what happens, as he has one of the Enhanced EPS contracts and they could opt to ask Curry to keep playing to be available for the Autumn Tests and then have the operation, allowing him to be fit for the Six Nations. However, that would remove Curry from club selection in both the Premiership and Investec Champions Cup.

Sanderson said: “It’s still around the suture site, which is irritating him and affecting his preparation and we are in talks about what can be done for a longer-term fix rather than going week to week and at the moment that is clearly not working for him.

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“One option is to sit him out and it will settle down, but we have been down that road before and still it recurs. In the specialist’s experience, this has only happened twice before and one just got on with it while the other had the suture snipped off and weeks out. Both ways are a solution, but we are trying to work out what is best for Ben.

“He had the hamstring reattached in the operation (in May 2023), and he has seen the specialist for a second time and England are aware of the multiple scans trying to sort it out. It would be a clear-up from the last operation, which would be 12 days of stitches and six weeks in total.

“England may want to push him through the internationals, then has the operation and six weeks out over Christmas and he comes back for the Six Nations. That’s the best thing for country if it is focussed just on country. Best thing for the club is probably play a couple of games and get his operation over the Autumn internationals.

“This is why there is still a lot of communication about what is best for Ben and how we can serve both masters.”