SPOTLIGHT: South Africa has delayed a decision on the fitness of injured captain Siya Kolisi, ahead of the second Test against New Zealand in Cape Town on Saturday.
Kolisi suffered what appeared to be a fractured cheekbone in a collision with All Black Sam Cane in the 31-27 win at Ellis Park last Saturday.
Cane was penalised for the headshot, but no further sanction was applied.
Scrum coach Daan Human said on Monday that they are still assessing the captain and will continue to monitor him this week.
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“We are assessing him and the possibility of his availability for the team,” said Human.
“We will see how it goes during the week.
“He is important to us, but if he is not available – next man in .”
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Human said it was a “proper knock” but declined to go into more details or discuss the match officials’ non-action.
“It was a proper knock, but I can’t go into what the referees or the TMO saw. We’ve seen what we’ve seen.
“Hopefully he can recover soon and be fit to play the game.”
The Bok captain attended the post-match press conference, after the weekend’s win, with the right side of his face severely swollen.
When Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was asked about the injury, he said he thought it might be a fracture and by the looks of it, it might be the cheekbone.
“To me, it looks like a fracture,” Erasmus said.
“The doctor will have to take a look.
“I am not a doctor, but he doesn’t normally look like that,” a smiling Erasmus said.
The incident happened in the 60th minute and Kolisi was replaced by Kwagga Smith.
Erasmus has delayed his team announcement from the usual Tuesday slot till Thursday.
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