Exeter Chiefs are waiting to discover the extent of the damage to the shoulder of their star winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso after the England international looks to have dislocated his joint in the first half of the Devon club's 28-10 defeat away at Sale Sharks on Saturday.

In terms of records, both sides continued their 100 percent consistency, with Sale unbeaten at home in the league and Exeter without a win in the Premiership to leave them locked to the foot of the table at Christmas.

Sale centre Luke James and full-back Joe Carpenter scored first-half tries before a penalty try and Jonny Hill’s score gave Alex Sanderson’s men a five-point haul. Chiefs could only manage a try from prop Jimmy Roots and five points from the boot of Henry Slade who once again slotted in at fly-half.

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Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter made a number of changes to his side following last Sunday’s thumping 64-21 home defeat against Toulouse in the Champions Cup but to no avail.

Discussing the injury situation with Feyi-Waboso, Baxter said: “Initially, it looked like his shoulder popped out but it looked like it went back in pretty quickly.

“He’ll be having scans and an assessment as soon as we get back to Exeter. There was nothing untoward – he just landed awkwardly."

Two yellow cards in the second half for returning captain Dafydd Jenkins and then fill-in skipper Jacques Vermeulen hindered Exeter's chances in the match but reflected the away side getting on the wrong end of the penalty count as the 'desperation' creeps in.

Baxter said: “We’re just in a bit of a cycle whereby we’re undoing our hard, physical work by being ill-disciplined.

"You don't have to be a rugby genius to see what our Achilles heel is. We can't put passages of play together without becoming penalty ridden. Our penalty count was very poor today and that really hurt us. The game has ended up being 28-10 but we should have been able to control field position just by not giving up penalties, especially in the second half when he had the slight benefit of the very tough weather conditions. That half should have been very hard for Sale but we actually made it very easy for them by giving up some soft penalty.

"I know what it is happening, it is a desperation to do well, a desperation to get an edge and be competitive. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong and we got it wrong too many times. It is something we have all got to approach together and find out what is leading us to this desperation. If we can take it out of our game then we can take some steps forward quickly."

Exeter now turn their attention to a huge game against Gloucester at Sandy Park on Sunday at they look to stop the rot and go into the New Year, and a tough run of fixtures through January, with a win.