Injury concern for Sheffield Sharks as they bid to bounce back from horror weekend

Sharks face defending champions London Lions on Friday night before continuing on to Surrey 89ers on Sunday afternoon.

They do so on the back of successive defeats to Caledonia Gladiators and Newcastle Eagles the weekend before last, and potentially without their captain Alihodzic.

“Everyone is carrying knocks,” said head coach Atiba Lyons. ”Fahro (hip and ribs) might be out for this weekend, we’re not sure yet, we’ll have to wait and see.”

London have won all seven on their league games so far this season and won in the EuroCup at the Copper Box Arena on Wednesday night.

“In theory it should help us (that they played two nights ago),” admitted Lyons. “But they’re deep and they’re talented and they’re playing at home so it’s a lot easier to manage two home games in a row.

“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do; be physical, be tough and rebound well.”

Lyons believes the sudden jolt Sharks received to their momentum two weeks ago says more about the strength of the league than it does any weakness in his team.

Sharks had begun their 2026-27 SLB campaign with two wins for the first time in over a decade before drastically hitting the buffers in the first quarter in Caledonia two weeks ago.

They scored only four points in the opening 10 minutes, their lowest ever single quarter output, and left themselves far too much to do to retrieve the situation.

Two days later they suffered a first home defeat of the season when Newcastle ambushed them in the third quarter.

“We’ve had some tough losses in different circumstances, but on both occasions we showed a lot of heart and grit, so we just want to keep playing until we can get it together,” said Lyons.

“We’re excited to be playing, we’ve worked really hard this week and it’s time to get going. We just want to play basketball.

“A little bit of it against Newcastle was that we had that seven-hour trip home from Caledonia in our legs. I’m not making excuses but it definitely played a part.”

Lyons has used the 12 days between games to try and get his players up to speed on how he wants them to play in what the veteran coach believes is a British league that gets stronger each season.

“Everybody is really competitive, we aren’t going to steamroll the league by any means,” he said.

“I think we can play a lot better, but every game is going to be tough.

“Surrey are a really good team this year, they beat Cheshire recently, they’re shooting the ball well.”

And he has no desire to rip up the script, despite the recent setbacks.

“I’m happy, we’ve just got to get healthy and get everybody on the court at the same time,” he said.

“That’s why this week has been nice, getting a better understanding of what we have.”