Etzebeth not completely out of All Blacks tussle

Veteran Springbok lock, Eben Etzebeth, is not completely ruled out of Saturday’s Rugby Championship encounter against New Zealand at Ellis Park. This is despite him not making the matchday 23 named by coach Rassie Erasmus today.

Yesterday, assistant coach, Deon Davids, told the media that Etzebeth was a doubt for the game with a knee niggle, especially due to the Boks’ training policy that stipulates that if a player can’t train on a Monday – they can’t play on Saturday.

However, Etzebeth, did managed to train yesterday and the Bok management is set to make a call on his availability for the match after training this evening.

“I have to look at how this afternoon goes and then have a chat with all the players tonight. We might make a change, because he might have miraculously recovered, and the doc says there is some science behind that, it’s not just the will to play or the occasion,” says Erasmus.

“If that’s the case, we will be happy. It will be very unlucky for one of Marco (van Staden), Elrigh (Louw) and Kwagga (Smith) to be left out. It will be a call between the three of them. We will think clearly and see how Pieter-Steph (du Toit) moves and tonight we will make the call,” he added.

The injury to Etzebeth, which he picked up in a scrum training session, is not too serious according to Erasmus, and if he isn’t fit enough to face the All Blacks this weekend, he should return for the second game in Cape Town next weekend.

“It’s a meniscus. It’s just from changing one foot to the other in the scrum on his own, it’s not like someone ran onto his knee and he got a tear. He twisted his knee a little bit in a scrum session. The mechanics don’t show big trauma, which is positive,” said Erasmus.