Another top Springbok ruled out with injury

As Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus prepares to reveal his end-of-year touring squad this week, a fair bit of time would have been spent making contingency plans for an ever-increasing injury list.

The likes of Handre Pollard, Eben Etzebeth and Andre Esterhuizen have all picked up recent injuries, while Cheslin Kolbe, RG Snyman and Kwagga Smith are also all unavailable.

It’s now been confirmed that veteran hooker Deon Fourie – who earned a memorable recall this year – has been added to that list after suffering a hamstring injury while in action with the Stormers.

“He’s not playing this weekend, that we can guarantee,” Stormers assistant coach Labeeb Levy confirmed on Tuesday. “The hamstring is a tricky one. It’s normally four to six weeks, sometimes longer.

“From what I remember of the medical report, an operation wasn’t necessary, which is good, but obviously it needs conservative management and treatment as well as going through all the various rehab protocols.

“But he’s definitely not playing this weekend … and then the re-evaluation process will just take its course.”

Springboks and Stormers counting the costs of a long injury list

The Springboks will need to now rely heavily on the services of Malcom Marx, and Johan Grobbelaar as back up, but the situation is even more dire at the Stormers after Fourie joined a couple of other injured hookers.

André-Hugo Venter (elbow injury) and Lukhanyo Vokozela (head knock) are both unavailable for the Cape club, and JJ Kotzé is still suspended.

SOS sent out

As a result of these injuries, Scarra Ntubeni has come out of retirement amid the crisis at hooker for the Stormers.

“Have we sent Scat an SOS call? Yes, we did. He’s just come into training,” Levy told the media. “We’ve got Vernon, who’s been training and playing as well, and then also the young (Altus) Rabe, who’s played in the Currie Cup.

“Scarra’s possibly the third one, in case there’s an injury in our training today, or on the captain’s run. He was in retirement. He trained a few weeks ago, but he’s just a stop-gap – a medical joker if you can call it that, in case something happens.

“But we’re looking around … we just need to get through this one ( Saturday’s round-five URC clash against Ulster).”