Goosen cleared to play
Springbok Johan Goosen has passed a fitness test and will be on the Free State Cheetahs' bench for their Currie Cup crunch match against the Blue Bulls.
Griquas assistant coach Hawies Fourie confirmed on Friday that Goosen has been cleared and will take the place of Piet Lindeque in a revised team for Saturday's encounter in Bloemfontein.
"He trained well and kicked at goal without any discomfort," Fourie told this website.
"He has no pain [after training] and will be on the bench," the Cheetahs mentor said.
The 21-year-old pivot has been out of action since injuring his knee during a freak training ground accident on the Cheetahs' Australasian tour and was set to return to action earlier in the season.
Then, a fortnight ago, he underwent an emergency procedure for a ruptured appendix.
However, his recovery from that has been as swift as it has been dramatic and he will feature off the Cheetahs bench.
Goosen, a member of the South Africa Under-20 team that competed in the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship, has been troubled by a succession of injuries in the past two years.
He suffered a serious shoulder injury in a Super Rugby match against the Highlanders in April.
He recovered and made his Springbok debut on 8 September Australia in a 19-26 defeat in Perth. He came off the bench as replacement flyhalf for Morné Steyn in the 59th minute of the game.
The following two weekends he was in the starting line-up for the Springboks as flyhalf, where he performed well. However, in the Test against the All Blacks in Soweto he came off the field with a heel injury.
Goosen again recovered to play for the Cheetahs in the Super Rugby competition this year, till suffered that freakish knee injury on 18 March during a Cheetah training session in Sydney.
It was expected that would miss the all of the Springboks' Test matches this year, but if he comes through his latest comeback this week he could force his way back into the selection frame for the year-end tour to Wales, Scotland and France.
Free State Cheetahs – revised: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Rayno Benjamin, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Robert Ebersohn, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Pieter Labuschagné, 6 Johannes Prinsloo, 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Francois Uys, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Coenie Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 AJ le Roux, 17 Schalk van der Merwe, 18 Freddie Ngoza, 19 Teboho Mohoje, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Johan Goosen, 22 Willie du Plessis.
Date: Saturday, October 12
Venue: Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Marius Jonker
Assistant referees: Quinton Immelman, Francois de Bruin
TMO: Gerrie Coetzee
By Jan de Koning
