Lions suffer injury blow ahead of URC tour

SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT: Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen has revealed a 28-man squad for his team’s four-match United Rugby Championship tour.

After opening their season with a 33-35 defeat to the Stormers in Johannesburg, the Lions will now head to Scotland to face Edinburgh on Saturday.

They will then head to Italy to face Benetton before returning to the United Kingdom for a match against the Scarlets. They will end their tour in Belfast with a match against Ulster.

Ahead of their departure on Tuesday, the Lions have added another player to their injury list in the form of Manuel Rass (foot).

The other players not considered for the tour due to injury include Reinhard Nothnagel (wrist), Stean Pienaar (ankle) and Gianni Lombard (hamstring).

Meanwhile, Ruan and JP Smith have both returned to training and they should be ready upon the squad’s return.

Lions tour squad: