Giant Springbok lock Bakkies Botha became the latest withdrawal from Jake White’s injury plagued squad when he was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the right foot on Wednesday.
The injury rules Botha out of action for six to eight weeks.
Botha, an integral part of the lock combination, along with provincial teammate Victor Matfield, will definitely miss the Tests against France and the first Mandela Cup clash against Australia on July 9 in Sydney.
The Bulls second-rower also remains doubtful for the return Mandela Cup Test (at Ellis Park on July 23) and the first Vodacom Tri-Nations encounter the following weekend at Loftus, also against Australia.
Team management confirmed late on Wednesday that Botha’s place in Saturday’s starting line-up against Uruguay will be taken by Stormers utility forward Gerrie Britz, who moves from the replacements bench.
Britz’s place on the bench will only be decided on Thursday, as will a squad replacement, should White and his fellow selectors deem that necessary for the French Tests.
Matfield, whom White had hoped to rest completely ahead of the French series, is the logical choice to come on to the bench for Saturday.
Botha was already nursing a sore foot before arriving in East London, but it had been hoped the towering forward would recover fully in time to take on both Uruguay and France.
While Botha’s absence against Uruguay is not such a big blow, he would no doubt have formed part of White’s plans for the more stringent examinations against the French over the next fortnight.
Botha underwent a scan on Wednesday morning in East London and the result will not have pleased coach White, who has already lost AJ Venter (knee), Breyton Paulse (knee) and Ashwin Willemse (ankle), who all came into the camp carrying injuries from the Super 12 campaign.
Botha’s scan confirmed a stress fracture of the right foot bone (navicular bone), which the Bok medical team said was a result of overuse.
White expressed his concern over the number of overuse injuries sustained before the start of the international season.
”This is exactly the type of injury you see reappear when one consistently selects the same squad. It is frustrating because here you have a player with 22 caps and whom you want to give as much Test experience as possible before the next World Cup. In this way, it put us back quite a bit,” said White. — Sapa