Prop crisis for Cheetahs

The Free State Cheetahs suffered a cruel blow ahead of their Currie Cup crunch match against Griquas in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

Prop Caylib Oosthuizen is a doubtful starter for the Round Four encounter after injuring his shoulder in a freak training ground mishap on Monday.

Cheetahs assistant coach Hawies Fourie confirmed to this website that the injury is a "big worry" and that the powerful prop is going for scans to determine the full extent of the damaged.

That came on top of injury niggles that prevented a number of players from training on Monday – fullback Hennie Daniller, centre Johann Sadie, utility forward Teboho Mohoje and loose forward Philip van der Walt could not train on Monday either.

Fourie said they are confident that apart from Oosthuizen all the players should be fit to face Griquas.

Despite the numerous bumps and bruises from the 15-18 loss to the Sharks last week, the team is unlikely to change much for the encounter with Griquas.

Daniller is still having problems with the hand he injured in the latter stages of the Super Rugby season, but will continue to play through the pain barrier.

"We are injecting him for the matches, so we keep him out of training as much as possible," Fourie told this website, adding: "We don't want him to put too much stress on the hand."

Sadie injured his hamstring against the Sharks and Mohoje has a leg stinger.

Van der Walt is another star playing through the pain barrier, after he took a heavy blow to the knee two weeks ago and it was too painful to train on Monday.

Fourie admitted that the Cheetahs don't have much dept at present.

"That is always one of our problems in the Currie Cup competition," he said.

"Griquas provide us with depth in Super Rugby. With those guys back at Griquas and few guys in the Springbok team, along with a handful of injuries, our resources are a thin at present.

"That is why we are not taking chance with guys who have niggles."

By Jan de Koning