Springboks captain Siya Kolisi shares post-surgery update
Siya Kolisi has said that he will be "back soon" after an operation on his right hand "went well".
The South Africa captain shared a message with his 1.2 million followers on Instagram on Tuesday from hospital ahead of "several weeks" on the sidelines, according to French outlet Midi Olympique.
The double World Cup winner picked up the hand injury in Racing 92's 21-5 loss to Bordeaux-Begles at the Stade Chaban-Delmas on Saturday in the Top 14, managing to play the entirety of the match despite the injury.
"Operation went well! Will be back soon," he wrote on social media, which was met by messages from figures across the sporting world.
The injury to Kolisi is a further blow to the Parisian outfit, who extended their losing run to five matches with the loss to Bordeaux, which has seen them plummet from the top of the league table to sixth.
The Springbok will now face a race against time to return for Racing's all-French Investec Champions Cup round of 16 tie with Toulouse in April.
The positive for South Africa fans is that their captain will have made a full return to fitness by the time Ireland visit for a two-Test series in July, which will see the world champions pitted against the high-flying world number twos.
Racing face the two sides immediately above them in the Top 14 over the next two rounds, fifth place Toulon and fourth place Castres, providing them the opportunity to climb back up the ladder, but they will have to do so without their influential flanker.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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