Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Revealed: PSDT nearly lost his leg last month due to freak injury

(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

World Cup-winning Pieter-Steph du Toit was in danger of losing his leg after suffering a serious injury in last month’s Stormers match against the Blues in Cape Town.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 2019 World Rugby player of the year, whose form at flanker was pivotal in South Africa’s World Cup triumph in Japan, will be out of action for another three months with a problem described as very rare by Stormers team doctor Jason Suter. 

Mako and Billy Vunipola are reportedly in talks with several Super Rugby clubs

Video Spacer

“He had a medical emergency after the Blues game. He had a haematoma that developed into an acute compartment syndrome,” explained the medic to media at the Stormers’ high performance centre in Bellville. “It’s incredibly rare – there have been only 43 cases listed in the literature. It’s a medical emergency because if you don’t pick it up early they lose blood supply to the leg and they lose the leg.

“Within 15 minutes of him coming off the field and assessing him, we realised that he was at risk of this particular rare condition. He was taken straight to Vincent Pallotti hospital where he had a vascular surgeon waiting and he was operated on that night.

“It’s very unusual, very rare, but they had to cut through the muscle to release the pressure and they were only able to close that leg ten days after his initial injury. He is recovering well and we expect him to be back, based on the surgeon’s report, at around three months.”

Stormers boss John Dobson paid tribute to Suter, saying: “Doc deserves enormous credit for Pieter-Steph. Had a rugby player lost his leg it would have been devastating for the game. If it wasn’t for the timely intervention then I think (he could have lost his leg)… almost half of the 43 reported cases had resulted in that.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The Stormers have a long list of key players currently out injured, including Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and Test hooker Bongi Mbonambi. Suter said: “Siya Kolisi is recovering really well. He is four weeks away from return-to-play. His was a ten-twelve week injury – a grade three medial collateral ligament tear.

“Bongi tore off his hamstring. That was a surgical case and at this stage he is on track, he is doing well. However, it was a severe injury and he is expected to be out – from the time of injury – for between four and five months.”

WATCH: Six of the best Australia vs New Zealand matches 

Video Spacer

 

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

147 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Does South Africa have a future in European competition? Does South Africa have a future in European competition?
Search