Boks sweat over Kolbe fitness
ANKLE INJURY: HE, LOUW AND JANTJIES MISS TRAINING AS A PRECAUTION
Erasmus holding thumbs he’ll be back at Monday’s training.
An injury cloud hangs over star Springbok wing Cheslin Kolbe ahead of their Rugby World Cup quarterfinal in Japan next week. Bok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed that Kolbe was one of three players withdrawn from training yesterday, along with scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies and flank Francois Louw.
Kolbe, probably the Boks’ best performer in the pool stages of the tournament, sustained an ankle injury in their game against Italy last week, while Jantjies has picked up a hamstring strain and Louw has a knee niggle.
Though all three players were doing rehab yesterday, Erasmus said it was a precautionary measure, and the trio were still very much in contention.
“Cheslin is still nursing the ankle injury but we’re hopeful he will be training fully on Monday,” Erasmus said.
“I think there’s a very good chance he’ll be available. An 80% or 90% chance.”
While veteran Ruan Pienaar is a possible standby replacement should Jantjies not recover by next weekend, Erasmus hopes he can rely on his first-choice scrumhalf.
“Herschel has a light hamstring strain but he finished the game against Canada (on Tuesday) so I think at this stage it’s just precautionary to keep him out of training,” he said.
“But it’s also one of those that – at this stage – we’re a little bit nervous that we only have three scrumhalves here.
“So we’ve given him a little more recovery time so that hopefully on Monday he is ready to go, but it’s not even a grade one (hamstring tear) so he won’t be going home.”
With Louw having played a crucial role off the bench, as well as starting against weaker opposition, Erasmus felt it was important to manage the veteran player.
“Flo (Louw) has got a few bumps and bruises, and one knee is swollen a little bit,” he said.
“He is at that age where after every game he takes a little bit longer to recover, but he’ll be fine. We’ll just manage him a little bit differently to the other guys.”
The other 28 players in the Bok squad took part in field training in steamy, overcast conditions yesterday, as Japan braced itself for the approaching Typhoon Hagibis, which was expected to make landfall in the Tokyo region tomorrow afternoon.
The Springboks’ base in Kobe was on the far western edge of the typhoon’s path, and though heavy rain and gusting winds were expected in the region later today, the city was not facing a lockdown.
“I’ve personally never been involved in anything like this and it’s interesting to be part of it,” Erasmus said.
“It won’t affect us in terms of training... and we’ll move up to that side (Tokyo) on Monday.
“We have got a split training session on Sunday (tomorrow) which we could do indoors if the weather is too bad, so for us it’s not too bad in terms of the typhoon.”
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