Stormers stand-in captain Deon Fourie picked up a medial ligament knee injury after a croc roll on him in the URC match against Ulster in Belfast.
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Stormers coach John Dobson yet again has had the unfortunate task of delivering bad news regarding an injury to veteran Deon Fourie, who seems to be cursed by the rugby gods.
The courageous Fourie has spent most of the last three or four years making comebacks from serious injuries, and in a press conference on Thursday. Dobson revealed that the 39-year-old utility forward will be out for several months with a knee injury.
Fourie was hurt last week when Ulster captain Iain Henderson pulled him into an illegal croc roll. Henderson was red-carded for the offence, but that does not help Fourie’s cause as his career draws to a close.
“It’s a grade two or three medial, which is months,” Dobson said. “It’s not like an ACL and nine months — but it could be three months.”
Fourie captained the side against Ulster. This week the armband goes to prop Neethling Fouche. Dobson said another of his captains, Ruhan Nel, was not far off selection, but the coach would rather save the influential centre for the play-offs. Nel has a calf injury.
“Ruhan is a pity; he is about 90 percent recovered. We hoped to have him ready for this game, but if it’s not 100 percent, and if it goes again, he will be out for a long time,” Dobson said.
Dobson has tweaked his backline for the Cardiff match, with game-time for centre Jonathan Roche and wing Suleiman Hartzenberg. “We think Johnny is special; he just needs a run,” said Dobson.
“It’s our last opportunity before the play-offs to give Johnny a go. We committed to him weeks ago that he would play this game. And we want to give Suleiman another chance to see if that can be a solution for us on the wing.”
In a welcome boost, Salmaan Moerat returns from injury and will play off the bench. “Salmaan coming back improves us,” said Dobson. “That’s more than building capacity — that’s building infrastructure.”
Stormers team for Cardiff:
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Imad Khan, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adré Smith, 3 Neethling Fouché (captain), 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Keke Morabe, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Jurie Matthee.