Nienaber handed fresh injury concern after naming Springboks squad

South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has revealed that loosehead prop Ox Nche is a doubt to face Australia in the opening round of the Rugby Championship this Saturday after picking up a chest injury at training today.

The 27-year-old had already been selected to start against the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld just two hours before, but now Nienaber has had to adjust his plans.

Steven Kitshoff, who was originally part of a contingent that was going to head to New Zealand early to prepare for a clash with the All Blacks the following week, will now stay back in South Africa, with an announcement set to be made on Wednesday as to whether Nche can play or not.

“Unfortunately Ox Nche took a knock to his chest this morning and we had to send him for some medical investigations,” Nienaber said in a message on social media. “We haven’t received the results officially back yet, but we are making some contingency plans for if he is ruled out of the Test match on Saturday.

“He was selected to start, and like we said last week, some of the players will fly tonight to New Zealand and some of the players will fly a little bit later in the week. They’ll only fly once the squad that are going to play against Australia are nice and settled with a clean bill of health.”

Springbok team to face Australia in Pretoria:
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 83 caps, 65 pts (13t)
14 – Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls) – 4 caps, 5 pts (1t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 31 caps, 30 pts (6t)
12 – Andre Esterhuizen (Harlequins) – 11 caps, 0 pts
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 7 caps, 35 pts (7t)
10 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 3 caps, 10 pts (5c)
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 24 caps, 45 pts (9t)
8 – Duane Vermeulen (captain, Ulster) – 65 caps, 15 pts (3t)
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 66 caps, 25 pts (5t)
6 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 10 caps, 0 pts
5 – Marvin Orie (DHL Stormers) – 11 caps, 0 pts
4 – Jean Kleyn (Munster) – uncapped for SA (Ireland 5 caps)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 58 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 56 caps, 60 pts (12t)
1 – Ox Nche (Cell C Sharks) – 19 caps, 0 pts

Replacements:
16 – Joseph Dweba (DHL Stormers) – 4 caps, 0 pts
17 – Thomas du Toit (Cell C Sharks) – 15 caps, 0 pts
18 – Vincent Koch (Stade Francais) – 41 caps, 0 pts
19 – RG Snyman (Munster) – 23 caps, 5 pts (1t)
20 – Evan Roos (DHL Stormers) – 3 caps, 0 pts
21 – Deon Fourie (DHL Stormers) – 5 caps, 0 pts
22 – Grant Williams (Cell C Sharks) – 1 cap, 0 pts
23 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 27 caps, 36 pts (2t, 4c, 4p, 2d)