Injury deprives Loftus of Bok midfield trial
Stormers coach Robbie Fleck confirmed on Tuesday that his captain, De Jongh, has been ruled out because of a hamstring strain.
To add insult to injury, it is a "niggle" he struggled with in the build-up to last week's 17-all draw with the Sunwolves and then played with it through the encounter in Singapore.
It means the Stormers' will not be able to field their Bok pairing of De Jongh and Damian de Allende against the Bulls' Bok duo of Jesse Kriel and Jan Serfontein.
"You want your best players on the park for a game like this," Fleck said at a media briefing at the team's training base in Bellville.
"It is what it is, it is another injury and there is not much that we can do about it now.
"It would have been a nice match-up between the Bulls centres and our own centres, but it is not to be."
Fleck said the Bulls' centres are "pretty solid" and a strong midfield pairing.
"They certainly are very good players," he said, adding: "It would have been a good battle between the two pairings."
The Stormers coach admitted the loss of De Jongh is a "big blow".
"Before the game against the Sunwolves he was struggling with that and he could not run to his full potential with that," Fleck said.
"He was struggling during the week, but we didn't think much of it.
"In the game there was a bit of a tweak there.
"It is a very small grade one strain, something you can play with, but we need to be 100 percent going up to Loftus.
"It is the right call to rest him this week."
The loss of the captain is not the only setback the Stormers suffered.
Veteran prop JC Janse van Rensburg will be sidelined for 12 weeks with an medial collateral ligament knee injury.
Van Rensburg's layoff was expected as he left the field with the knee injury during the disappointing draw in Singapore last Saturday.
Fleck said he will make a call on team selection later in the week, but Johnny Kotze could move from wing to outside centre and co-captain Frans Malherbe will lead the side at Loftus.
The loss of Van Rensburg and De Jongh will be partially off-set by the return to the team of Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth – who has recovered from his calf injury.
"Eben is definitely ready to go again," Fleck told the media gathering.
"And it is always good to have a player back from injury or suspension so it is good to have Leolin Zas [who missed the trip to Singapore through suspension] back in the mix too."
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