VIDEO: Nienaber unpacks Boks' injury status
NEWS: Springboks Lukhanyo Am and Lood de Jager are the two Boks who missed out on the World Cup squad due to injury.
However, for Am, it is not all doom and gloom as he will get on the plane as part of the group of 38 that departs for the United Kingdom tour later this week.
The Boks will play Wales in Cardiff and the All Blacks at Twickenham as part of their warm-up for the World Cup.
The other four players who will go with the team on the UK tour are Handre Pollard, Joseph Dweba, Thomas du Toit and Jean-Luc du Preez.
Am got injured in the first half of the Boks’ 24-13 win over Los Pumas in Buenos Aires this past weekend while De Jager suffered from severe chest problems.
Handre Pollard is another player that missed out on selection for the World Cup squad but he seems to have the most realistic chance of sneaking into the squad should there be an injury.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber revealed at the press conference after the squad announcement that Pollard will start training with the Springboks this week.
Pollard suffered a calf injury while playing for Leicester Tigers in the final round of Premiership pool action back in May and Am got injured in the first half of the Boks’ 24-13 win over Los Pumas in Buenos Aires this past weekend.
(WATCH Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber unpack the team’s injury status …)
“Handre’s rehab went well, but he now needs to go through a test match week and the demands of a test match week.
“He needs to be able to produce on a Saturday and then he has to back it up the next week and the next week without putting him in too early. Even if he makes it through the first and second weeks, and then he breaks up in the third week.
“He will be able to start training with us, whereas with Lukhanyo, we think it is a two-to-four-week injury. But it is still very acute. And we will probably get a better gauge at the end of this week how he is doing,” Nienaber said.
“We believe they both will have the potential to be fit and ready to go by the Scotland game, maybe the week after that.”
Nienaber said it was unfortunate that there were two new injuries last week.
“There are two new injuries in Lood and Lukhanyo, who was injured over the weekend and Lood during the week.
“Handre is different to them in the sense that he is almost in his return to play and getting back to full fitness.
“He hasn’t had a training session with us yet, and the difference between Siya, and Ox and Handre is that Siya and Ox have done training with us and have done the volume and intensity that they must handle in a test week.
“Unfortunately Handre hasn’t had training with us yet. He will probably start training with us this week.
“But Handre can only come into the World Cup squad if there is an injury or a player does something to deselect himself.”
Nienaber did not want to elaborate on the state of the chest injury that De Jager is struggling with.
“I think people will understand, and it is not my place to elaborate on that. I know what it is, but it is not for me to say.”
Nienaber acknowledged that it was not ideal not to have three World Cup winners in the squad.
“It is not ideal, but I must say, that is the one thing from us as a coaching group. If someone didn’t get injured, there wouldn’t be a Siya here now. I probably look at it from a positive point of view, injuries are never positive and it is unfortunate.
“But the next guy must just step in. And we always said, Rassie and myself, that we planned for 2023 since 2018.
“If you look at the quality and the depth of the squad that got built over six years, that is what makes this team selection so difficult.
“Jesse [Kriel is a straight swap for Lukhano and if you look at the squad, there is a lot of versatility. We can Canan Moodie at 13, we can play Damian Willemse at 13 if we have to. There are a couple of options.
“Any game you play has an injury risk. You can either play guys and they become battle-hardened or you can wrap in cotton wool. You won’t have injured players, but you will take players into a World Cup where we are playing knock-out rugby from the very first game against Scotland.
“We still have five weeks left and we will have to work hard every day
“It is always bad to lose players with World Cup experience but the rest of the guys have gotten some game-time and they stepped in. If we didn’t give game-time to a guy like Marvin.
“Marvin played Italy, England, Australia and the two Argentina games, so he had a lot of game time and could step in for Lood.”
