Injury cloud over Boks star revelation
An injury cloud hangs over one of the Boks star revelations, Lood de Jager, ahead of their crunch NZ clash.
|||London – An injury cloud hangs over one of the Springboks star revelations at the World Cup in the build up to their crunch semi-final clash against New Zealand.
Young lock Lood de Jager has been a colossal figure within the Springbok team at the World Cup but a foot injury sustained in the Springboks 23-19 quarterfinal win over Wales could deny the South Africans of their most prized asset in a game that could go a long way in determining who will be world champions at the end of October.
De Jager is said to have injured a tendon in his foot and his availability for the Springboks biggest game of the tournament is in doubt.
Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts was cautious in his prognosis on De Jager and said that a decision on his availability would be made later in the week depending on how De Jager reacts to treatment.
“Lood de Jager has injured a tendon in his foot give him time to see how it settles depending how it goes we will make a decision later in the week. He is potentially a concern for us but as I say it is only Sunday now we’ve got time to still get him ready,” said Roberts from the team’s base at Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa.
De Jager’s injury will now place greater pressure on the Springboks medical team to ensure that veteran lock Victor Matfield is fit again after sitting out the past three weeks due to a hamstring injury.
Roberts confirmed that Matfield has made a lot of progress in his rehabilitation but that a decision would also be made later in the week on whether he will be available for selection.
Roberts cited Matfield’s age, he is 38 years old, as a contributing factor to the injury taking so long to heal but sounded hopeful that Matfield could be back to lend his experience in what the Springboks are hoping will be their penultimate match in the tournament.
“Victor has done well he is coming back from a hamstring injury and we’ve been rehabbing him a lot. When you are older it takes you longer to come right from that. He has been working hard and has been progressing nicely so a decision will be made on how he progresses later this week,” Roberts said.
There are also concerns over hooker Bismarck du Plessis who was temporarily replaced during the game and returned back with his right hand heavily bandaged but Roberts confirmed that there was no fracture just a cut from teammate Francois Louw accidentally steeping on Du Plessis.
“Bismarck du Plessis who got a nasty laceration on his hand. He got stood on accidentally by Francois Louw and got a big gash we had to stitch up. Thankfully there is no fracture there but he is sore and swollen, confident he will be ready for Saturday and we will have to manage him during the week,” Roberts added.