Rassie Erasmus issues rebuke to injury-hiding Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is set for an operation to mend a knee injury he picked up last month versus the All Blacks in Johannesburg. A starter in that 31-27 Rugby Championship win on August 31, the 22-year-old played off the bench in the following weekend’s 18-12 win over the same opposition in Cape Town despite being caught limping during the build-up by Rassie Erasmus.

The Test rookie hasn’t travelled to Argentina for this Saturday’s round five match and it has now emerged that he won’t feature either in the September 28 round six rematch in Nelspruit as surgery is required.

It wasn’t until after naming his latest team selection in Buenos Aires that it emerged Feinberg-Mngomezulu is injured as he was initially said to be resting when left out of the travelling squad along with other players such as Willie le Roux, Damian de Allende and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

However, Springboks boss Erasmus has now confirmed that the youngster needs an operation, adding at a media briefing that he was unhappy that Feinberg-Mngomezulu didn’t reveal his injury to the back room staff following the Emirates Airline Park win over the All Blacks.

“Sacha will only be ready for the end-of-tear tour because of a knee issue,” explained Erasmus after he named a team showing 10 changes to the starting line-up following the September 6 Cape Town victory over New Zealand. “He injured it during the first Test against the All Blacks and in the following week, I asked him, ‘Why is he limping?’ He then said he injured his knee in the previous Test.”

That revelation left Erasmus tempted to pull Feinberg-Mngomezulu from the DHL Stadium bench as the Springboks selection criteria states that players who aren’t fully fit on the Monday are not considered available for selection for the following weekend. “I actually wanted to pull him out of the team because he was limping. One of the things that our players must understand, even the young guys, is that they need to be honest with their injuries.

“Nobody who has an injury and is at 80 percent is better than a player who has no injuries and is at 100 percent. Sacha is lucky that we won those games because he gambled a bit. He is having an operation now. We don't know what is exactly wrong with the knee, but it should be ready within four and a half weeks."