England flanker Tom Curry has undergone wrist surgery and will miss the start of the new Premiership season with Sale, but could be fit for the Autumn Nations Series in November.

Curry had an operation on a long-standing wrist ligament injury after returning from the British and Irish Lions’ series victory in Australia and will be absent for the start of Sale’s campaign, which begins against Gloucester on Thursday, 25 September.

But he has an outside chance of being fit for England’s autumn fixtures against Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina.

“You are more likely to see him in an England shirt than you are a Sale shirt,” said Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson.

“His return to play sits him somewhere around the Autumn Internationals.

“But you never know. He has a habit of defying comeback dates and what surgeons say. He’s on good form, healing well, dead positive.”

Curry navigated his way through six matches for the Lions despite his wrist injury.

He revealed he had a new cast fitted in Australia following the Lions’ shock defeat by Argentina in Dublin.

“We had this cast which we had to change in Sydney, because we realised that I wasn’t actually catching many balls,” he said.

“We had this thick one that covered my palm and it was really tough because I had to catch [the ball] with my fingertips. I remember playing in the Argentina game and I kept dropping it.”

England begin their campaign against Australia at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, 1 November.