The Springboks are not sweating over the injury to giant lock Eben Etzebeth and he will be given time to recover over the next fortnight from a shoulder injury sustained in the win over Scotland.
SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus said in the team’s debriefing on Monday that Etzebeth wasn’t part of the team plans for the Romania game on Sunday and would have been rested anyway.
He added that the shoulder injury looked to be “a seven to 10 day” injury that should see Etzebeth return before the crunch pool game against Ireland on September 23.
Etzebeth, who was replaced in the 26th minute by RG Snyman, will be waiting for final word on his scan, but the Boks were optimistic about the outcome.
“We’re waiting for the scan. I’m sure we’ll have 100 per cent clarity later today,” Erasmus said on Monday.
The Boks added that they would have expected Etzebeth to train as per normal even though he wasn’t due to play this weekend and will now look to get him right for the Ireland game in two weeks time.
“It is still a long way, if we get out of our pool. We have four weeks to the quarterfinal,” Erasmus explained.
“You can get a lot of conditioning, corrective training and cohesion in that time.It will still be a blow not to have him train for seven to 10 days. Take that with the caveat that Eben very seldom goes off the field.”
Erasmus said that if the scans showed something different, the Boks would make the call then.
“When we get the result of the scans we’ll make the call. We can’t have a guy not training. Watt bikes and rowing machines are good, but that is not running and tackling.
“If he is not 100 per cent in the next seven to 10 days, we’ll have to have a rethink.”
While the Boks do have several other lineout options, Etzebeth is their enforcer, and the only other four lock - Jean Kleyn - was also nursing a knee niggle but is expected to play against Romania this weekend.
The Boks can use a number of options if Kleyn is not right, including Franco Mostert and even Duane Vermeulen at lock, but are likely to stick with Kleyn if he is fit until Etzebeth returns.
Jean-Luc du Preez is the back up in the position if Etzebeth is ultimately ruled out of the tournament.
