VIDEO: Springbok star heading home

WEMBLEY, LONDON: Springbok loosehead Ox Nche’s tour is at an end after suffering a serious injury early in the game against Japan on Saturday.

The South Africans scored a convincing 61-7 victory over the Brave Blossoms at the iconic Wembley Stadium in front of around 20,000 mostly South African fans.

But the five-week tour didn’t start well for coach Rassie Erasmus as he admitted that Nche would be heading home and wouldn’t take any further part in the end-of-year tour.

The 30-year-old prop went down in the 19th minute, and according to Erasmus, he was on crutches after the game.

The coach confirmed that he is requesting Lions prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye to join the Boks. However, the powerful prop faces two formal doping charges from the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS).

Erasmus still needs to run his plan past the selectors.

It is a huge loss for South Africa to lose a player of Nche’s calibre, and one that is not easily replaced.

“He is serious. I don’t think he will play the rest of this tour. Unfortunately, in the tackle situation, he hurt his ankle and his knee,” Erasmus told reporters at the post-match press conference

“He is on crunches, so I don’t think we will have him for the rest of the tour.

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“We are planning to replace him. We’ve got Boan [Venter] and Gerhard[Steenekamp] – I thought Gerhard played really well – and Thomas [du Toit] is back.

“Then we’ve got Wilco [Louw] and Zachary [Porthen] who played today [Saturday].

“But if another loosehead goes down in a week, we are in trouble, so we are probably getting Asenathi [Ntlabakanye],” the coach said, adding: “I must just talk to the selectors first, but as I sit here now, I think Asenathi will come in.

“And then Thomas will swing between tighthead and loosehead for us.

“I must first get the go-ahead from the selectors, but that is where our heads are currently.”