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Steven Kitshoff sheds light on 'stressful' career-threatening injury
By Josh Raisey
South Africa loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff has explained why his current neck injury is a "stressful one" just days before he undergoes neck fusion surgery.
The double World Cup-winning prop has been out since early September after sustaining the injury playing for Western Province in the Currie Cup against Griquas. The 32-year-old had only just returned from a knee issue, with both injuries depriving him of playing for the Springboks at all in 2024.
Joining RugbyPass TV's upcoming episode of Boks Office this week, the former Ulster prop explained how the location of the injury on his neck has made it such a concern ahead of his operation on November 20.
Speaking to former Springbok Schalk Burger, who has undergone the same procedure, the 83-cap international said that he had no "neural fallout" and that he was "quite pain-free" sitting there.
"It's a bit of a stressful one because it's such a high area of my neck - C1 and C2 - which is a bit of an issue," he said.
"I've been through this the last couple of weeks building up to the operation. Basically now I just want to get it done and start the rehab process and see what happens after that."
Kitshoff went on to detail how he suffered the injury in a scrum that didn't even collapse.
"It was quite a fright," he said. "It happened in the weirdest way. Just a normal scrum, and everyday type of thing, and then I just felt something snap at the back.
"Mine was just a normal scrum. The scrum didn't even collapse. In the process of the scrum, I just felt something go.
There were initial fears that this injury could jeopardise Kitshoff's rugby future, but he was upbeat on the podcast about starting his rehab.
An update is yet to be issued as to how long he will be sidelined after the operation.
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Latest Comments
Not sure what could be gained from fielding the same team as the past few weeks and winning comfortably against Japan. So hopefully Steve Borthwick takes the opportunity to give some experience to a few others in the wider squad.
Asher Opoku-Fordjour in particular could benefit coming off the bench in the second half, and as the centres continue to be an issue for England I'd also like to see Luke Northmore given a chance to show if he has what it takes. At some stage we need to see if these players can hack it at International level, so I'd also include Davidson Murley, Roebuck, and Hill in the 23 otherwise why bother having them in endless squads... For what it's worth my choice would be...
15. Furbank
14. Murley
13. Northmore
12. Lawrence
11. Sleighthome
10. Smith (M)
9. Randall
1. Baxter
2. George
3. Stuart
4. Coles
5. Martin
6. Hill
7. Underhill
8. Earl
16. Opoku-Fordjour
17. Dan
18. Davidson
19. Itoji
20. Cunningham-South
21. Van-Poortfleet
22. Smith (F)
23. Roebuck
Go to commentsYes and some of the injured players selected were of far less importance to the squad than Ikitau.
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