Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most exciting prospects for the Springboks this year, featuring prominently at flyhalf during the first half of the season.
However, the 22-year-old missed the last two Tests of the Rugby Championship, with Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus in fact revealing that the youngster ‘hid’ the severity of a knee injury.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu has since undergone surgery, and all signs suggest that a careful injury recovery plan will require him to conduct rehabilitation for the remainder of the year.
“We are hearing from his club (the Stormers) that he may be sidelined for up to 12 weeks, which would sideline him for the rest of this year,” a South African official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
“A major concern is that he has injured the same knee twice within a year and, if rushed back, could develop arthritis. The Stormers are wisely adopting a conservative approach.”
This concern was also highlighted by Stormers coach John Dobson a couple of weeks ago.
“There was some damage to the same knee he injured last year,” Dobson said. “That is a concern, having injured the same knee twice in a year. The official prognosis is an eight-week lay-off.
“However, given the history and given that you can get an early onset of arthritis with a repeat injury, it will be a tragedy for a player that has a massive contribution to make to the game in South Africa and the Stormers.
“I suspect it should be a couple of weeks longer than that (eight weeks). The last thing you want is for him to ge t some sort of arthritis or some career-threatening situation. We will be very conservative with his return.”
Feinberg-Mngomezulu started against the All Blacks at Ellis Park before coming off the bench in the second game in Cape Town against New Zealand, but it did seem that he was somewhat hampered by the knee injury – particularly when it came to his goal-kicking.
Handre Pollard and Manie Libbok are now covering flyhalf for the Springboks
Erasmus recently revealed that Feinberg-Mngomezulu had not been fully transparent about the injury, and warned about the dangers of this.
“He injured his knee before the first Test against the All Blacks. He played through it. I asked him during the next week why he was limping and he said he injured his knee last week.
“I actually really wanted to pull him out of the team because he was limping. That’s what we need the players to understand, you must be honest about injuries. Sacha is lucky we won both of those Test matches.
“They need to be honest when it comes to injuries, because nobody at 80 percent fitness is better than another player who is 100 percent ready.
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