Alex hopeful of speedy return for injured Faf
ALEX Sanderson hopes ‘fast healer’ Faf de Klerk can return to action quicker than expected after the Sale star was ruled out for five months.
The scrum-half has suffered a hip flexor injury while on international duty with South Africa and now needs an operation.
It means a long road back to recovery for the World Cup winner, and creates a problem for Sanderson with Will Cliff also battling an injury and Raffi Quirke having been called up to the England squad.
But the Sharks’ director of rugby is philosophical about the situation, and believes De Klerk will be back sooner than expected.
“I’m hoping it is a bit less than five months,” said Sanderson. “Four maybe. He is a quick healer, Faf. He has only got little legs, there is not a lot to heal.
“It’s a ligament. From what I understand from the radiologist’s report – and I haven’t seen the scans so I could be wrong – there are two ligaments joined to your hip flexor and one of them is torn. Not through completely but it is on its last tendrils so it needs to be reconnected so that it is able to function properly because otherwise it would ultimately tear through and the other one would have too much strain on it to play.
“You have got to stay positive. I am not happy about it but what can you do?
“Faf is very positive. Optimism is a virtue of his. He has brought his girlfriend back from South Africa so that will keep him positive for a month or two.
“That was important to be fair because he needed looking after, especially when you are rehabbing, you need someone around to give you a cuddle, make you a cup of tea, and he has got that now.
“If anyone is going to come back from an injury like this as strong and as motivated it is going to be him because he has got seemingly limitless energy.”
And Sanderson is looking to the successful operation Sale back Marland Yarde had on the same injury as positive news.
“You can play through these things but not for a long period of time and he [Yarde] is looking sharper now after that (hip flexor operation) and a reconstruction than he has looked for a long time. So it is possible, more than possible, to come back,” he added.
South Africa have agreed to pay for De Klerk’s operation and rehabilitation, and although it happened while he was on international duty, Sanderson lays no blame on the Springboks. He said: “People get injured all the time.
“You can nit-pick on any one of these and start pointing fingers but I am not going to do that because you would end up being quite a bitter old man I would imagine. It [injuries] are part of the game.”