Injuries a headache for Boks

IN 2011, the Springboks took a few players who had not quite recovered from injury – players like Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez and Jannie du Plessis – to the World Cup in New Zealand much to their peril.

In that tournament, Botha was unavailable for the opener against Wales and was soon forced to return home after aggravating his achilles injury, having played only twice, against Fiji and Namibia.

That risk, team doctor Craig Roberts assured, would not be taken this year.

Sharks lock Pieter-Steph du Toit is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury – the dreaded ACL – suffered against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein earlier in Super Rugby competition.

He will be given ample time to recover from the knee injury. But he will only be in line to be picked if he has recovered sufficiently and has had game time by the time the final 31-man squad is announced at the end of August.

However, fellow second-rower Lood de Jager, who broke his elbow in the Cheetahs’ first match of the season, looks set to get a bit of match time before Super Rugby comes to a close.

But Roberts admitted that his anxiety grew with every weekend of rigorous Super Rugby action, as there may not be enough time for anyone seriously injured at this point to make it on the plane to the UK in September.

“We are going to give Pieter-Steph as much time as we can,” Roberts said.

“He’s had some good weeks and bad ones, which you get with that sort of injury, but it is premature to make a call on him now.

“It will obviously be the coach’s decision, when he selects his final squad, as to when the cut-off date will be for players to recover from injuries.

“At the moment, we still have quite a bit of time. Everyone is still in contention to make it to the World Cup. Obviously injuries come and go.

“If we pick up a nasty knee injury now, the timeframes are too short to recover. The closer we get to the World Cup, with the guys still playing, that’s when I start getting nervous because we then start running out of time to get the guys ready.

“But so far there is no one that I can categorically say won’t be at the World Cup.

“It is difficult because every time you go into a game there is the risk of injury, but you cannot go into the World Cup not having played.

“Rugby is all about exposure – every time you go onto the field there is that injury risk and we can’t do a lot about that. We do try to prevent injuries.”

More than half of the 44 players called up to the Springboks’ first training camp of the year in Johannesburg could not take part in full training on Monday because of injury.

Players carrying injuries were separated in yellow Bok training gear, while the fit ones ran onto the field in grey-coloured kit.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer admitted to being anxious about the lock and inside centre positions, following injuries to Du Toit and De Jager as well as Flip van der Merwe’s sudden withdrawal from international selection.

Adding to his grey hairs were Bulls centre Jan Serfontein’s struggles with a hip niggle.