Curry: 'I came very close to retirement'

TOM Curry is back in a Sale starting shirt for the first time since the 2022/23 Premiership final defeat, for tomorrow’s match against Harlequins.

- TOM JEFFREYS

The England and Lions back rower had made his return to Sale colours in last season’s Premiership semifinal defeat to Bath in a 35-minute cameo, before he toured with England to Japan and New Zealand this summer, despite warnings from Sharks chief Alex Sanderson.

He had missed most of the season owing to a degenerative hip injury that began troubling him during the 2023 Rugby World Cup, but has made a miraculous return despite surgeons forecasting retirement, and jumps into the ‘deep-end’ this weekend in as good a condition as possible.

“There’s no better way of doing it, testing yourself against the best”, he says.