Alex Sanderson provides George Ford injury update before challenging Champions Cup trip

Ford, recently named Quilter Nations Series Player of the Tournament, won't make the field in France — but the outlook is considerably brighter than first feared.

"It's nothing long-term, he's still ongoing through fitness tests, I can't see him making the field this week but comparing what it could have been to what it is, we feel extremely lucky that he's got away with something that could have been more serious,” Sanderson said.

“It's not going to be serious, it's not going to be long, a week or two at most."

The fly-half has been managing an abductor strain, missing last weekend's game against Glasgow, and while he is already back running and testing strongly, Sale will err on the side of caution.

"It's some kind of abductor strain, he's had it scanned. All his metrics are great, he's in the gym, he's testing really well, he's running. But once you've scanned it and there's something there, we are ethically bound to make sure that it doesn't become something bigger. Just looking after him really."

Sale's recent run of losses has come with important context. One-point defeats away to Leicester Tigers and at home to Exeter Chiefs underline how fine the margins have been, and last weekend’s performance away to Glasgow — with a heavily rotated side hit by injuries to the likes of Joe Carpenter and Tom Roebuck — reinforced to Sanderson that his squad is still trending in the right direction.

"Very much encouraged by how competitive we were against basically the Scottish team last week given our injury status… I thought the team stood up,” he reflected.

“If you look at those performances in isolation, two [defeats] that have been by one point, I reckon we could be fourth in the table but the outcome of our league positions shows that we're eighth [seventh]."

Amid the grind of a difficult injury run and a brutal fixture list, Sanderson emphasised the importance of maintaining a positive environment for his players.

"You want them to enjoy their lives, you want them to enjoy the time they have. It should be the best time of their lives. You want to create that atmosphere for them."

Now comes a different kind of challenge: a notoriously hostile trip to France, where Clermont-Auvergne’s home crowd rarely requires much encouragement to turn the volume up. For Sanderson, that energy is something to embrace — especially for the younger players stepping into big roles.

"The more hostility, the more partisan the crowd, the better for me,” he said. “There's two ways you can go, it just energises me and I'm sure it will for the lads, it's invaluable for some of these younger lads who have to step in and get this experience, for them to feel that."

The key, he insists, will be denying Clermont a foothold in the collisions and the set-piece.

"If you let them get dominance in the set piece and around the gain line then they'll have a field day and the crowd will start banging their drums and then it feels like it's you against the world.

"I'm getting excited just talking about it. We've got a tough job to do but I'm confident the lads will step up, be physical and enjoy it."