Marcell Coetzee ruled out of Rugby World Cup and facing surgery

Springboks management have confirmed that Marcell Coetzee will not take part in the Rugby World Cup.

The injury cursed forward will undergo ankle surgery on Wednesday, 21 August.

The Ulster loose forward hurt his ankle and also suffered a blow to the head in the first half of the Springboks’ 24-18 victory over Argentina in Pretoria.

He will be out of action for up to 12 weeks, which means he is also ruled out of contention for selection for the Springboks’ RWC squad.

Yesterday the Springboks sent home four players.

Lizo Gqoboka (Vodacom Blue Bulls), Marvin Orie (Xerox Golden Lions), Thomas du Toit and André Esterhuizen (both Cell C Sharks) have been released from the Springbok training squad back to their provinces and will be available for Currie Cup selection this weekend.

The four are members of the Springbok training squad of 36 players who gathered in Bloemfontein on Sunday for the start of a four-day Rugby World Cup camp. They will join their provinces on Tuesday.

On the weekend Erasmus shed light on his thought process going into the final week of selection following his side’s victory of Los Pumas in Pretoria.

“There were one or two players that had question marks over them and there were some where we got confirmation and others where we had doubts and things clarified. But we will have a proper sit down tomorrow.”

However Erasmus did confirm that two-try hero, Sbu Nkosi, would be in the 31.

Meanwhile Erasmus also said he was delighted with the performance of Siya Kolisi, who was starting his first test of the season.

“We wanted to get Siya off after 30 minutes and see how he would last but with the injury to Marcell Coetzee we had to change our plans,” said Erasmus.

“At halftime Siya said he was feeling great and that he wanted to go 70, but then he was struggling after 50 minutes. We’ll work really hard on his conditioning and get him right.”

The Springbok group will have a few closed practice sessions in the Free State capital before breaking camp on Thursday, after which the 31-man squad will then gather in Johannesburg for the official announcement of the RWC squad next Monday.