Sheridan Raring to Go
England and Sale's Andrew Sheridan, says he is raring to go ahead of the new Premiership season.
Sheridan dislocated his left shoulder during a match against Cardiff last season and has been fighting against the injury ever since. He has been training with the rest of the Sale squad during pre-season and it now seems that he is ready to come back onto the scene.
Sale have been making a lot of signings during the close season and it's important that Sheridan can come into the side and add the experience that will help these players gel together.
There are a lot of positives for both the club and the player with this news because Sheridan may have been wondering how long it would be before he would play again. However, he cannot take anything for granted because some aspects of the game and the club have moved on since he picked up the injury.
Positives
Sheridan has lost his England and Sale place and the fact he is fit means he can start working towards getting these places back. This is something that would have been playing on his mind ever since he got injured and he will have a determination to make sure both of these things happen.
The club will effectively be getting a new player. They played for large parts last season without Sheridan in the side. This means they would have learnt to cope without him and now that he can come back in, it means they will effectively be putting a new player into the team.
Sheridan said: "It's just to make sure that he's happy [the surgeon] and then I'll be looking forward to playing in the pre-season games. I'll have been out for almost 10 months by the time we play our first pre-season game so it has been a long road back. Hopefully everything will be all right - the shoulder is certainly stronger now."
Dangers
Many people will ignore just how long Sheridan has been out of the game with the news that he is about to make his return. He has not played for almost a year and during this time both Sale and England have moved on.
Sale have been one of the most active clubs during the close season and they have signed a number of players who are all going to want to start next season. England have moved on because they have formed a team that won in Australia and this is not something that all England teams do.
However, it seems that Sheridan is determined to overcome any problems. He added: "In some ways I obviously feel that I owe Sale Sharks a lot, so I'd like to have a good season. I'm not trying to pretend and start waving the loyalty flag around because it's a professional game and injuries happen."
Betting Advice
Sheridan will have his work cut out to get in the Sale starting 15 for the first Premiership game of the season. His injury will be tested through the pre-season games but this is certainly a case where caution first is the best option.
Even if he plays well during the pre-season games, his fitness is still going to be slightly lower than the other members of the team. This could result in him being exploited during early Premiership games as a weakness in the Sale team by opposition sides.
There is no doubt that he will give Sale a better chance of doing well next season but it will take him a while to get going. Wait a few games before you place any bets on Sale to end up in a certain position by the end of the season.
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