ON THE BLIND SIDE
SALE Sharks are looking for an emergency scrum-half replacement for Springbok star Faf de Klerk, likely to miss the next five months because of a hip injury.
De Klerk suffered the injury in the Second Test against the Lions but then played four more games in the Rugby Championship in Australia before returning to Manchester last week for scans.
And he is now set to have an operation this week and will miss the Autumn Internationals against England, Scotland and Wales next month but, more importantly, a significant chunk of the Premiership and European campaigns.
Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson said last week when he faced the media that it's frustrating that his star came back from international duty injured.
Sanderson, who is also without an injured Will Cliff, will seek experienced cover for Raffi Quirke, <span xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” class=”ld_italic”>above.</span>
It could get worse if England call up Quirke for their autumn campaign.
