Tom Curry’s highly anticipated return won’t happen when Sale takes on Saracens next Saturday in a crucial match for their Gallagher Premiership semi-final hopes. The upcoming clash at the StoneX Stadium echoes last year’s final at Twickenham.
The flanker’s last appearance was in England’s World Cup third-place play-off victory against Argentina back in October. Since then, he underwent a grueling six-hour operation to address arthritic changes, labrum, and cartilage tears.
Describing the extent of the damage as akin to a “car crash,” Curry underwent surgery, which fortunately was successful.
Despite hopes for a comeback this weekend, Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson has ruled it out.
“I might as well call it, no, he is not,” admitted Sanderson ahead of this weekend’s game.
“He’s not far off but unfortunately, he hasn’t made it. We haven’t done enough rugby exposure with him for him to feel confident but he is moving incredibly well – he is having a pre-season style week.
“Like, he’s getting rinsed and that is what we wanted to happen to him. He came in this morning, I saw him and went, ‘How are you feeling?’
“He said, ‘Really stiff’. ‘Well, you asked for it’. And he was doing extras at the end of the session today, so he is there or thereabouts. We’ll make a call if and when we give ourselves an opportunity to play a semi-final.”
The latest odds for the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour Captain – by BonusCodeBets
1/1 – James Ryan (50%)
4/1 – Maro Itoje (20%)
5/1 – Jac Morgan (16.7%)
10/1 -Jamie Ritchie (9.1%)
16/1 – Owen Farrell (5.9%)
20/1 – Peter O’Mahony (4.76%)
The current 36-man British & Irish Lions squad for 2025, according to the bookies
Andy Farrell faces numerous challenging decisions leading up to finalising his Lions squad, yet bookmakers appear confident in predicting the players destined for Australia next summer.
We found it intriguing to project a smaller squad based on the favored contenders according to bookmakers’ odds as of April19, 2024.
The Lions will play a New Zealand and Australia invitational XV as part of their nine-match tour down under in 2025.
The historic fixture in Adelaide will precede Test matches with the Wallabies in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
A sell-out at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground would smash records for a Lions Test match.
The series finale will be played in front of more than 80,000 fans in Sydney’s Olympic Park.
The 2025 Lions tour fixtures in full
- Saturday 28 June: v Western Force, Optus Stadium, Perth
- Wednesday 2 July: v Queensland Reds, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Saturday 5 July: v New South Wales Waratahs, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
- Wednesday 9 July: v ACT Brumbies, GIO Stadium, Canberra
- Saturday 12 July: v Invitational Australia & NZ XV, Adelaide Oval
- Saturday 19 July: First Test, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Tuesday 22 July: v Melbourne Rebels, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
- Saturday 26 July: Second Test, Melbourne Cricket Ground
- Saturday 2 August: Third Test, Accor Stadium, Sydney
The bolded players in our proposed Lions squad represent the starting XV, according to current odds.
2025 BRITISH & IRISH LIONS SQUAD (36)
BACK-THREE (6)
- Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland) – 1/16
- James Lowe (Ireland) – 1/8
- Hugo Keenan (Ireland) – 1/5
- Tommy Freeman (England) – 4/9
- Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (England) – 8/11
- Mack Hansen (Ireland) – 2/1
CENTRE (4)
- Bundee Aki (Ireland) – 1/5
- Ollie Lawrence (England) – 1/4
- Sione Tuipulotu (Scotland) – 2/7
- Robbie Henshaw (Ireland) – 8/11
FLY-HALVES (3)
- George Ford (England) – 1/10
- Marcus Smith (England) – 8/15
- Finn Russell (Scotland) – 8/11