Sale shed more light on George Ford injury after scan

Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson admits that star fly-half George Ford will again be missing with an abductor strain when he takes his side to Clermont Auvergne in the Champions Cup this weekend.

Sanderson maintains the injury the England ace suffered in the defeat to Exeter Chiefs two weeks ago isn’t serious and is thankful it isn’t as bad as it could have been.

“It’s nothing long-term, and he is still ongoing through fitness tests. I can’t see him making the field this week, but from what it could have been to what it is. We feel extremely lucky.

“He has got away with something that could have been more serious. It is going to be a week or two at most. He has had it scanned, and all his metrics are great.

“He is in the gym, and he is running, but once you’ve scanned it, and there is something there, we are ethically bound to ensure it doesn’t turn into something bigger and more serious.

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“So it is just looking after him, really. He would play, but said at this point, I cannot kick. We said he needs to look at the bigger picture. So we are protecting him from himself,” he said.

The Sharks travel to France on the back of four successive defeats and face a Clermont team that will look very different to the one that was crushed 47-10 at Saracens last weekend.

Sanderson will be without Tom Curry, who faces a mandatory rest following the Autumn Nations Series, but says his team will be up for the scrap at the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin.

“We haven’t got the squad at this point to rest players. We will be competitive and go as hard as we can. The team we are putting out is a good team.

“Clermont have clearly rested what is their starting 15 to be strong at home, so we know we are going to be up against a real physical, fresh Clermont team on their own turf in that cauldron.

“There are fewer places that are tougher in the world to go to, but the lads like a scrap. They are excited about going down there and going toe-to-toe, and they never back down.

“That is something I’m really proud of over the last four defeats, how they haven’t back down. I’m not yet concerned. There are reasons and different reasons why we lost those games,” added Sanderson.