All Blacks voice concern after prop gets cut 'right through into the muscle'

New Zealand added one more player to the injury ward in their heavy loss to the Springboks, and there’s a concern for player welfare with the second deep flesh wound of the year potentially sidelining another starter.

Tyrel Lomax never bothered trying to get back to his feet after a tackle on Springboks fullback Damian Willemse, having sustained what appeared to be a deep cut on his thigh.

While there was momentary relief the injury wasn’t anything ligament-related, the nature of the wound poses a very different risk.

The open wound was quickly tended to but inevitably spelled the end of Lomax’s night just 13 minutes into the contest.

Following the match, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster reported on the injury while voicing his concern over its cause.

“Tyrel’s pretty bad actually,” Foster revealed. “He’s got quite a big cut, it’s right through into the muscle on the thigh.

“We’ve got a little bit of a concern with some of the sharp plastic blade stuff that’s happening at the moment so we’ll have to check which boot that came from.

“It certainly wasn’t deliberate but Beaudy got cut with a similar sort of thing so we’ll have to check that out.

“But he’s not in a great way. (We’ve got) a few other dings, a few sore people but that often happens when you go down to 14 and you’re chasing the game and working hard.”

Beauden Barrett fell victim to a stray boot in Super Rugby Pacific earlier in the year, leaving the playmaker with 20 stitches and more than a few nervous moments as the All Black awaited his diagnosis.

“It was a sprig straight across my Achilles,” Barrett said back in June. “It did everything, but get the tendon.

“I was pretty lucky. It was a good gash – I must have been pretty lucky for it not to knick the tendon.”

Barrett missed the following two games as he recovered from the injury. The All Blacks are yet to know how long they will be without Lomax’s services but Ian Foster appeared confident the injury would not rule the prop out of the World Cup entirely.

“I would doubt it,” he said.

“There’s no question it’s accidental, we’ve just got to make sure we’re looking after our players.”