VIDEO: 'I forgot about my knee' - Kolisi opens up on 'heated' comeback
SPOTLIGHT: Springbok captain Siya Kolisi might very well make his comeback to the playing field in a week.
On Saturday, he was asked if he felt he was ready to once again lead the team and he explained that he will only know once he takes the field.
But he also delivered some good news.
The 2019 World Cup-winning captain underwent knee surgery near the end of April.
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“You can only know that when you get on the field,” Kolisi told a media briefing on Saturday ahead of the team’s departure for the UK.
“Our training helps a lot, because it’s like a rugby game.
“I’m not thinking about the knee, that’s the most important thing,” he said while pointing to his injured right knee.
“We had a session on Thursday, the last training session in the morning, and it got heated a little bit, in a good way, and I forgot about my knee and just got stuck in it. Which is a good sign.
“That’s all I care about right now, is getting over that, which I am, and I just need to get as many minutes as I can, on the field and in training.
“The coaches are making sure that I am not swapped during training, I just stay on the whole time, which is tough.
“Right now I am not worried about the knee. If something happens, then it happens. I can’t go in there with those small voices in my head. I won’t be able to lead the group.
“That’s why training is so important. And what I do during the week is so important,” he explained.
Kolisi was adamant that he would not play if he had any doubts about making it through a Test match.
“There is no way I am playing and there are doubts in my head. If I am on the field, playing, I won’t be thinking about that.
“What I enjoy about the leaders in the group, is I can tell them: ‘Just take charge for this time so I can focus on me”.
“I am always the best when I am playing, and when I am playing well. That’s why I can rely on others.
“I used to do that in some games, when I came back from injury for the last World Cup, I used to tell Handré to make the decisions. I just wanted to play a little.
“And maybe later I can tell him, I am good again.
“I can be open and honest with that because it’s not about me, it’s about the team,” the captain said.
