Springboks coach provides update on injured captain Siya Kolisi

About 30 minutes after the full-time siren at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday evening, Springboks captain Siya Kolisi walked into the post-match press conference with some noticeable swelling on the right side of his face.

Kolisi struggled to drink a bottle of water as coach Rassie Erasmus joked at the skipper’s unfortunate expense. Erasmus suggested the backrower had suffered a facial fracture during the Springboks’ thrilling 31-27 win over the All Blacks in Johannesburg.

“He doesn’t normally look like that,” Erasmus said, which was met with widespread laughter amongst those in the room. But away from all of Erasmus’ playful attempts to assess Kolisi’s injury, there is a serious side to this.

If the injury is confirmed to be a fracture, that would put the captain in doubt for this weekend’s clash between the same two rivals at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium. Interestingly, the Boks won’t announce their team publicly until Thursday so they’re giving Kolisi every chance.

When asked to provide an update on Kolisi’s injury status on Monday afternoon, assistant coach Daan Human didn’t give too much away. While the Boks have some impressive depth amongst their backrow ranks, fans will have to wait a bit longer for a definitive answer.

“I think they’re still busy assessing the possibility of being available for us,” Human told reporters at the team’s hotel. “We’ll see how he goes through the week but firstly, I think he’s important for us as well and if he’s not (available), next man in.

“I think it was actually a proper knock. I can’t go into what the refs and the TMOS and what they saw, we’ve just seen what we’ve seen.

“Yeah, hopefully he can recover soon and (keep) getting better, and hopefully he can be fit to play the game.”

The Springboks will be without winger Kurt-Lee Arendse for the Freedom Cup decider with the speedster leaving the field with a concussion during the recent Test win. That’s one bit of bad news but the Boks could potentially make multiple changes for Saturday.

Human was asked specifically about the availability and likelihood of Western Province enforcer Steven Kitshoff coming into the team. The two-time Rugby World Cup winner has not played since last year’s Final at Stade de France – starting at loosehead prop.

“We also had a look at the guys and obviously ‘Kitsy’ has only been now back for two games. His second game back, I had a proper look at his game we had yesterday, they had a good win yesterday,” Human explained.

“I think we will definitely consider it. We’re looking at all the options – all the guys in the squad are available.

“Obviously, there’s one or two guys with niggles but it will have an influence on our selection. Obviously, playing in front of his home crowd, he’s from here, can be a thing that we think about.”