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Pieter-Steph, Nel the early injury concerns for Stormers
The anxiety starts for DHL Stormers coach John Dobson on Friday as he watches his squad engage in a lunch-time series of 20-minute chukkas that will serve as a warm-up for next Saturday’s Super Saturday showdown with the Emirates Lions in Pretoria.
Dobson is understandably pleased for rugby to be back and he has stressed that everything possible needs to be done to get the rugby industry restarted. You do detect though an air of concern when he talks that the intensity of the return, with a Super Saturday double header being followed by what is effectively a Springbok trial, could put the Stormers, and South African rugby as a whole, at risk of suffering the sort of injury epidemics that have blighted other contact sports in their return to play.
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Of course, Dobson knows all about injury epidemics. He had lost most of the Springboks from his pack by the time the initial Super Rugby season was halted by the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.
“We will be playing a series of three chukka matches among ourselves at Newlands (on Friday) and they promise to be full on and competitive. It is necessary considering what is coming up,” said Dobson in a zoom media conference.
“I have to admit that while it is necessary, I am massively scared of injury. I think everyone is. Not since school, in fact maybe not even while they were at school, have the players gone more than six months without playing rugby and taking contact. And then to go straight into full on games does carry risk. We’ve seen what has happened in the Aotearoa and the Bundesliga. We’ve seen the stats.
“The players are keen to play mentally, that is obvious. But they are also really worried about injury after being out for so long. We have pushed the players as hard as we could in the last few weeks and gone as close as we could to the regulations that were in place in trying to get in proper training. Obviously it is hard to scrum with a mask or to maul with a mask. There is a threat, we can’t deny that, the players have been out for so long that it is going to be a case of us watching these early warm-ups very nervously."
Dobson’s major injury concern remains 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit, who is likely to be out until at least the end of October and who must be in serious doubt for the Springbok squad if indeed the world champions participate in November’s scheduled Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
“Pieter-Steph is not ready yet, and the truth is we don’t know when he will be ready,” said Dobson.
“We spoke about the injury back in March, the fact that of the 42 people who suffered the injury he suffered, 21 had to have amputations. It was predicted as a six-month injury. There is a nerve in the muscle that protects the knee and the muscle around that nerve is not growing back fast enough. He is currently in a four to six-week cycle and there are signs of growth, but I know from experience, with people like Ramone Samuels, that nerve injuries are open ended injuries. It is hard to put the doctors under pressure to state a specific date when he will be ready.
“What we do know is that he definitely won’t be ready for the Loftus game and also not for our first Currie Cup games. If the Boks do go to the Championship, I’d say he could be in doubt for that. What is good though is that he is training full out, there are no panic stations in that regard. Once he is given the all clear he will be able to return to the field.”
The other player out at the moment is centre Ruhan Nel, who injured a hamstring in pre-season training. The Blitzbok star’s absence will give Dan du Plessis an opportunity to play, something that Dobson is looking forward to after the star young centre’s long injury induced absence from the playing field.
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