Europe goal for Bok trio

Injured Springbok trio Francois Louw, Ruan Pienaar and Willem Alberts are expected to recover in time for the year-end tour to Europe, according to team doctor Craig Roberts.

Louw took a knock to his head during the Springbok's 14-10 loss to New Zealand which pushed out a disc in his neck and placed pressure on a nerve that resulted in him feeling symptoms down his arm.

He will undergo surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve which would keep him on the sidelines for 7-8 weeks.

"We made a decision for him [Louw] to have surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve. Hopefully we will have him back in about eight weeks but we will take it week by week. There's a possibility he will be ready for the end-of-year tour," Roberts said.

Pienaar suffered a knee injury in the same match which will see him being ruled out of action for six weeks. The scrumhalf has a medial collateral ligament sprain but the medical team will be working on getting him ready for the tour to Europe.

Alberts is also expected to rejoin the Boks on the end-of-year tour after he had successful surgery to relieve the pain of a pinched nerve in his back.

"Willem is doing really well. He had a nerve pinched in his back and had surgury on that. He's starting to get going with his conditioning and he is on track to be available for the European tour," he added.

It was a bruising encounter in Wellington and Roberts was thankful for the week of rest as it afforded the battered players time to recover.

"I would love to have the guys for four months for a proper pre-season every year but you cant. The schedule is what it is and we have to work around that."

"We have to do some conditioning during a test week, so that's what some of the sessions will be. The guys will decondition as the season goes on if they solely focus on game related play."

"We are aware of that and try to build it into the program. We try to work with it as best we can," he stated.

Tauriq Ebrahim