Stormers remove two World Cup-winning Boks from Champions Cup squad
The Stormers have removed the injured duo of Steven Kitshoff and Damian Willemse from their Investec Champions Cup squad just days before their campaign gets underway.
The double World Cup-winning loosehead prop recently underwent neck fusion surgery, while Willemse is suffering from a groin injury in a year where he has been beset by issues.
Kitshoff was recently a guest on RugbyPass TV's Boks Office, where he detailed the severity of his injury and the surgery, saying: “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."
The 32-year-old recently revealed on social media that he was "thrilled to share that my operation was a big success,” but added that it will be a "long recovery journey," which explains why he will be unavailable this weekend and beyond for the Stormers.
The pair have been deregistered for the opening round of the competition, against Toulon on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, with two additional players being added.
Zachary Porthen has been called up in Kitshoff's place, while Willemse has been replaced by Jonathan Roche.
Saracens have been forced into the same move ahead of their match against the Bulls, with second-row academy graduate Charlie Barker being replaced by Tiff Eden.
Only one other Champions Cup outfit has opted to alter their squad, with Leicester Tigers deregistering back-row Joshua Manz in order for Cameron Miell to join the squad for their trip to face Bordeaux-Begles.
Edinburgh have been forced into two squad changes ahead of their Challenge Cup meeting with Gloucester, with Scotland centre Mark Bennett and flanker Connor Boyle out. Euan McVie and Tom Currie will step in in their place.
The final squad change comes from France, where Perpignan have called up back-row Andro Dvali for Alan Brazo.
Latest Comments
"the 2mil over spend was "unapproved spend" related to player expenses ie travel, benefits, team costs etc" Yes I know this and guess who was the head coach leading the squad at the rwc spending that money... On any/every metric, ikitau should've been in that squad and had put in class performances against top 5 teams like two tries in 2021 against the springboks so you're just plain wrong on your history again. Bottom line, it's a head coach's job to get the best players in the squad and get the best out of them. The clear dip in performance from Rennie to Eddie and then improvement from Eddie to Schmidt clearly shows that Eddie did not do that. The improved performances of Noah, Wright, Ikitau, Wilson etc are just microcosms of that. Now the wallabies are only just getting back to the level they were with rennie in 2022, basically a full 2 years and a RWC campaign wasted on Eddie and Hamish's ego, not to mention the torched millions, and lost players like C Gordon and mark N.
Go to commentsdisappointed that I would have to subscribe to another Channel to watch the europien ! Champions rugby. I already have Sky , TNT , Discovery . I will not be adding Premier Sports . The new format is not as good as the old Heineken one.
Go to comments