Anxious wait on Nkosi's injury

The Springboks will have an anxious wait to hear if they have the services of Bulls winger S’bu Nkosi for their November tour of Europe.

While several members of the touring squad left for Ireland on Saturday, Nkosi played for the Vodacom Bulls against the Cell C Sharks and hurt his rib in the process, casting doubt over his availability for the tour.

Nkosi was supposed to fly out on Sunday night with the rest of the players that were involved in Vodacom United Rugby Championship derbies, but went for medical tests instead.

The Boks will now wait for the diagnosis before they make any decisions as to his fitness.

“He hurt his rib," Bulls coach Jake White said after the game. "During halftime, he said he wanted to carry on. As I speak, they’re busy injecting it.

"He had a flight tonight with the Bok team to Europe. I’m sure our doctor will talk to their medical team about the injuries we’ve got. The call will be made by the national team to decide whether they want him – because they might want to rehab him for a while – or whether they’re going to take someone else.

"It’s a long tour. I’m sure he can always go but it’s not my call. I’ll leave all that up to the medical staff."

Bulls winger Stravino Jacobs replaced Nkosi for the second half and scored a try in the surge that put the Bulls over the top to win the game with a bonus point.

If Nkosi is unavailable, the Boks have several options, including calling up one of the players from the SA A tour squad, which is due to leave on 5 November for their two midweek games.

Aphelele Fassi, Cornal Hendricks and Suleiman Hartzenberg have all played wing before and are in the SA A squad and one of them could be due for a call-up if Nkosi’s injury is serious.