Pollard ‘on the edge of being fully fit’, but soon heading home

When looking at the Springboks’ World Cup squad, one of the major talking points has been the fact that Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am ultimately missed out on selection due to injuries, while Lood de Jager was ruled out with illness.

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It’s believed that the deadline for submitting Rugby World Cup squads was this past Monday, but if there happens to be a serious injury suffered in this Friday’s World Cup warm-up game against New Zealand, then a call-up can be expected.

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Of course, the Springboks will be hoping that they go through the game unscathed, but it’s also worth remembering that even if a prop was injured – for example – that doesn’t mean a like-for-like replacement has to be selected.

In fact, if the coaches felt there was enough cover in that position, they could opt to call up any other player, and it’s likely that Pollard remains top of the ‘standby’ list in terms of players the Springboks would want to call up.

Am and De Jager are still some way from being able to train fully, but Pollard is almost fully recovered from his injury.

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Coach Jacques Nienaber has now fully explained exactly what the status of the situation was.

“Handre’s on the edge of being fully fit. He’s not in a return-to-train protocol anymore, he’s in the return-to-play cycle,” said Nienaber. “Lukhanyo is in the former, which means he’s not even training at the moment. With Handre, he’s on his way back to playing competitively, probably a week away from being declared to fit to play. [The complication is] he obviously would need to find some match fitness.

“Handre and co are part of the stand-by players, the ‘ready-to-play’ squad so to speak. They’re currently still in camp with us, but after the New Zealand Test they leave for their clubs,” added Nienaber.

“After this weekend’s game, if there are no injuries, they’ll leave the squad. I’m not even sure if Lukhanyo is truly in the selection frame anyway. He hasn’t even trained with us. He’s still in the process of returning to training.

“If there’s an injury, we would change the composition, but there are no injuries currently. If it does, then obviously we’ll change things. The World Cup final, for example, is still 10 weeks away. Things can change.

“If there’s any injuries, we can still even see a guy like Lood coming back in. Any of the ready-to-play guys are in the frame. Jean-Luc du Preez, Thomas du Toit and Joseph Dweba will all fall in if they’re required. But, for now, they go back to their clubs. The 33 players we announced at SuperSport is the list we handed in [to World Rugby on Monday].”

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POLLARD IS AMONG NINE SPRINGBOK PLAYERS ON STANDBY

• Lukhanyo Am (centre)
• Lood de Jager (lock)
• Jean-Luc du Preez (utility forward)
• Thomas du Toit (prop)
• Joseph Dweba (hooker)
• Herschel Jantjies (scrumhalf)
• Pollard (flyhalf)
• Evan Roos (No 8)
• Gerhard Steenekamp (prop)

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THE VETERAN FLYHALF HAS BEEN A KEY PERFORMER FOR THE SPRINGBOKS FOR SOME TIME