Hendre Fourie has not played for Sale since February as he contintues to battle back from a shoulder injury © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Jaque Fourie | Bryan Redpath

Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership

Teams: England | Sale Sharks

Sale Sharks boss Bryan Redpath insists injury-plagued flanker Hendre Fourie is not about to retire from the game but admits he is some way from winning his fitness battle.

The South African-born Fourie has managed just 14 minutes of Premiership action in a Sharks shirt since making a high-profile move from Leeds at the start of last season. He re-injured his shoulder against Worcester in his only Premiership outing last season and is still struggling with the same problem.

"He's been through a lot in the last year-and-a-half," Redpath told BBC Radio Manchester ahead of his side's Premiership clash with London Welsh on Friday night. "He knows where he is and he needs to make sure everything is fully fit and fully functional. At the moment, it's not and he needs some time.

"He's going through a tough time and we need to support him as much as possible. He's definitely not going to play until we assess him again in November. We're trying to give him time to rest and recover.

"Whether it's sooner or later, hopefully we can get him back in a Sale strip and back playing because he's a great player."

Sale are under increasing pressure having lost their first three games of the season at the hands of Harlequins, Saracens and Exeter but Redpath insists he is seeing improvement. "You can be ambitious and say you were going to get 12 points from those three games, but there's not many teams that do," added Redpath.

"The performance against Exeter wasn't good enough, against Sarries it was improved, and at the weekend we created four opportunities and we never took any of them. It's disappointing and it makes Friday night's game [against London Welsh at the Salford City Stadium] huge for us."