England flanker Tom Curry requires surgery on a wrist ligament injury but will put off going under the knife until after the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.

Curry is set to miss Sale’s Premiership match against Bristol on Friday as he manages a minor hamstring injury, sustained against Leicester Tigers last weekend.

But Sale coach Alex Sanderson admitted that the England forward will require an operation on a longer-standing wrist problem when he returns from Lions duty.

“He will need an operation at some point, but he’s clearly able to manage it and play through whatever pain he’s experiencing currently,” Sanderson said.

“It’s not something that is stopping his game minutes or something that’s managing his training minutes either.

“He had to play and play through to see if he could, and if the risk was minimised, which the specialist was happy with, and the pain was manageable, which it clearly is for the superhuman that he is, then he’d put himself up for Lions selection.