Curry may undergo further surgery on hamstring

Ben Curry has 14 caps for England and played in their three Test matches this summer

England and Sale flanker Ben Curry may undergo surgery again on his hamstring and faces the prospect of six weeks out if so, says club director of rugby Alex Sanderson.

The 27-year-old played 60 minutes of the Sharks' defeat by Bath on Friday night.

He previously had surgery on the injury in May 2023, with the stitch that reattached his hamstring to the bone now the cause of persistent irritation.

"It's still around the suture site, it's still consistently irritating and affecting his preparation, so we are in talks about what can be done for a longer-term fix rather than going week to week," Sanderson said.

"Clearly, at the moment, it's not working for him."

Curry has twice seen a specialist and had scans for the issue since returning to Sale from England's tour to Argentina and the USA over the summer.

Sanderson stressed that no decision had yet been made as to how to proceed and that one option includes surgery while the other does not.

"That's one option - sit him out, it'll settle down, but we've been down that road before. Still it reoccurs," Sanderson said.

"In the specialists' experience - and it has only happened twice before - one of them just got on with it, and the other person had the suture snipped out, had six weeks out and then got on with it.

"Both ways there's a solution, it's just trying to figure out what the best thing is for Ben."

Curry has 14 caps for his country and is one of England's players on an enhanced player squad contract.

Sale play Newcastle at home this weekend and are then away at Saracens and Leicester through October in the Prem.

But with the Autumn internationals coming in November and then the Six Nations in February, Sanderson said finding the right time to suit club and country as well as being the "best thing" for Curry was part of the challenge.

"They [England] might want to push him through the internationals, then he gets his operation, he'll be six weeks out over Christmas, and he'll come back with five or six weeks in to the Six Nations - that's the best thing for country if it was just focused on playing for country," Sanderson said.

"Best thing for club is probably that he could play a couple, and he gets his operation done over the Autumn Internationals with a stretch [out] after.

"I can't give you an answer because there's still a lot of communication about what is the best thing for Ben. Ultimately, it should be about him, what he wants and how we can hopefully serve both masters."