Handre Pollard. (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
- Handre Pollard has now emerged as the Springboks’ biggest injury worry ahead of the World Cup.
- The trusty flyhalf’s calf injury is taking longer than expected to show improvement and he won’t feature in the Rugby Championship at all.
- In better news, talismanic Eben Etzebeth looks set for a competitive return soon.
Handre Pollard has now emerged as the Springboks’ biggest injury headache ahead of the World Cup title defence in France.
Rassie Erasmus, the national director of rugby, on Tuesday revealed that the trusty pivot will in all likelihood not feature in the upcoming Rugby Championship at all, contrary to some initial optimism.
Pollard had sustained a calf injury on duty for his English club, Leicester, near the end of the Premiership season, an affliction that is now becoming problematic and putting him in a similar predicament to Bok skipper Siya
However, given the Bok captain was only slated to return for South Africa’s pre-World Cup warm-up matches, Kolisi’s prognosis has been steadily improving.
“Handre is a bit of a worry,” Erasmus said from the team’s base in Pretoria, where they’re preparing for their Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies at Loftus next weekend.
“It’s a tricky situation because it’s a calf injury that he’s re-injured. A re-injury always has us a bit more nervous.”
READ | Sbu Nkosi looking for ‘fresh start’ after cutting Bulls ties: ‘We agreed to move on’
This latest development renders the decision to recall Elton Jantjies even more prudent, despite Erasmus also confirming that Stormers stalwart Damian Willemse is “all ready to go”.
Manie Libbok is the other flyhalf in the squad.
“That’s the reason we have Elton here,” said Erasmus.
“We want Handre to recover fully because you don’t want to push him too early. His timeframe is now like Siya’s, we’re hoping their both return either against Argentina in South America or the Wales and New Zealand warm-ups.
“When you only have two flyhalves in your group, you tend to put undue pressure on the guy who’s injured.
“Elton’s presence, especially, helps us at training, where he really adds value because we don’t need to have a Faf [de Klerk] operating [at 10 during our training drills].”
There’s better news on the talismanic Eben Etzebeth, who missed the Sharks’ season run-in with a shoulder injury, as he looks set to feature in the coming weeks.
“Eben’s been doing tests and he’s been passing them well,” said Erasmus.
Scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse is also close to making his return.