Big blow as Bok star faces 'five to six months' out

NEWS: Lood de Jager, Sale’s World Cup-winning lock, is facing his third shoulder reconstruction and could be out of the game for six months delivering a major blow to the Springboks and Sale Sharks.

Steve Diamond watched his side slip to fourth in the Premiership with a 22-37 home loss to Bath who moved into third place and then revealed the decision to send De Jager for surgery after he was injured in the win over Leicester which bent pins in his shoulder.

Worryingly for De Jager is that he had both shoulders reconstructed during 2019 and now he faces another lengthy rehabilitation period at the same time as RG Snyman, his fellow World Cup-winning lock, who is recovering from knee reconstruction after being hurt playing for Munster.

Last week, Eben Etzebeth left the field in Toulon’s Top 14 opening-round loss to La Rochelle with a rib injury.

Diamond will not be bringing in any new lock and will look to recent signing Cobus Wiese to fill the void created in the Sale second row which struggled to win line-out ball against Bath with de Jager missing.

Diamond said: “It’s not great news on Lood and he is going to have surgery next week. He will probably have a rebuild and be out for five to six months. We won’t get anyone in short term and Cobus Wiese can hopefully command our line-out.

“We didn’t play well and Bath sorted us out at the line-out and at this level if you can’t get set-piece ball, get two yellow cards and give double-figure penalties then maybe we have reached our level and are not good enough to be in the top four. That is what I have said to the lads. We fluffed our lines and it’s up to them how they react.”

Stuart Hooper, the Bath Director of Rugby, paid tribute to his team and two try Ben Spencer and said: “Getting the fourth try was brilliant and Ben Spencer leads the boys around the pitch and his game is genuinely World class.

“We have scored 100 plus points in eight days and a home semifinal is within reach but it is incredibly tight.”

By Chris Jones, @RugbyPass 

#NEWS: There were worrying scenes as the Bok flyhalf was carried off on a stretcher https://t.co/n4qH1EbFab

— rugby365.com (@rugby365com) September 12, 2020