Eben, Salmaan and Damian recieve an invitation from Rassie

WILL EBEN ETZEBETH be ready to play in the Rugby Championship?

While the answer to that question still isn’t clear, the Stormers lock has been named in Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus’ 22-man training squad for next month’s Rugby Championship.

Etzebeth - who has played no Super Rugby this season due to nerve damage in his shoulder - underwent surgery on the injury he picked up the injury on the Boks’ End of Year Tour in November last year.

He was expected to make his return ahead of the Stormers’ second-last Super Rugby game against the Jaguares, but ahead of the match Robbie Fleck confirmed that a back injury the 26-year-old suffered during training set him back another week.

But given the nature of the injury and as his prognosis has shown, whether or not the towering lock will be fully fit and ready remains to be seen.

Erasmus has also included five uncapped players for the camp in Stellenbosch

Salmaan Moerat, Damian Willemse, JD Schickerling, Cobus Wiese and Marco van Staden are the five uncapped players invited to the camp, consisting of players from the Stormers and Bulls, while players from the Lions and Sharks will join the training camp once they’ve completed their Super Rugby commitments.

Other notable additions are props Coenie Oosthuizen and Trevor Nyakane‚ who missed June’s Tests against Wales and England through injury.

“I want to thank the franchise coaches for allowing their players to attend the camp, which we view as a very important part of our preparation,” explained Erasmus.

“We’re very pleased that several players got the opportunity to gain Test experience during the June internationals and we are now looking forward to working with more of our most promising players, such as Damian, Salmaan, Marco, JD and Cobus.

“It’s also good to have Eben and Coenie back with us after they’ve spent a considerable amount of time out of action because of injury. Once fit and available again, they will add considerable experience to the squad.” The bulk of the squad will start training this week