Urgent questions regarding the management of injured players at the Sharks now need to be answered as another player has gone from being on the verge of a comeback, to once again injured with an indeterminate return date.
Jean Deysel was named on the bench for the Sharks last week, only to be withdrawn from the team at the last minute. Whispers doing the rounds were that he was nowhere near ready to play, which has been confirmed now as he won’t be fit to face the Cheetahs either; in fact, we now have no clue when he’ll return. The same applies to Tim Whitehead, whose arm fracture looks set to keep him out for the bulk of the season, despite an initial prognosis of just 6 weeks out; Butch James, who we were told would miss two weeks of the season, also has no clear return date two months into the season.
Bismarck du Plessis’s return date is an unclear as the others, with the player himself seeming to disagree with the Sharks’ management as to exactly when he will return.
The issue here is one that was raised earlier in the year; we’re rapidly losing faith in the “injury reports” that come out of the Sharks’ camp, but the potential implications of this are more severe. The question I have is whether the Sharks themselves actually have any more clarity regarding the injury situation than they are revealing, or whether they are just as in the dark as the rest of us. It doesn’t take a genius to point to the unexpected and very rushed change in team doctor ahead of the season as a possible cause…
The one slight silver lining to the current injury crisis is that Willem Alberts is, according to the Mercury, poised for a return via the Vodacom Cup this weekend. The unfortunate consequence of the confusion that has gone before, though, is that I have very little faith that this will actually happen – I’ll believe it when I see it, in other words.
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Is it not the new team doctor we have? Maybe that’s the problem…
Get Smit onto it!
@Uli (Comment 1) : Uli, I’m stopping short of blaming him outright…. the Sharks medical team used to be a well-oiled machine and it doesn’t seem to be functioning that way right now.
Kourie really had no time to get familiar with the setup though and was thrown straight into the deep end. I feel for him.
That Cheetah’s trio is going to take some doing to keep in check. They may even be better as a unit as the Stormers trio that outclassed ours last week.
@Bokhoring (Comment 4) : ai….
Big loss this. We need some steel soon!
Ja, I’m over it. I’ll wait to see the players on the field before I celebrate their tour.
The biggest injury though is one that no one talks about!!!! When is Lambie going to recover from the Heyneke he took to the head at the end of last year? So far it looks like he’s trying out to be Morne’s replacement at the Bulls
👿
I believe the Doc is the problem here…what experience does he have with sport injuries and professional sport?
Sharks must stop waiting and more importantly rushing injured players back…we need to get Brynard Stander in the side as we are in desperate need of an out and out 7 now that Alberts and Deysel continue to have injury problems.
Just give Stander one game to show what he can do…he has never been given a proper run and i truly believe he can do a great job getting us over the advantage line, aswell as being aggresive on defence.
C’mon plum, give Stander a chance…he has done nothing but perform consistently well for any side he has been selected for.
Stander has been at The Sharks for a long enough time now and even in his school days at westville and craven week, i thought he was immense…i truly hope he gets a look in.
My biggest query is from the photos of the Springbok training camp. Both Bissie and Alberts are there training as normal. Okay they’re obviously not taking full contact but surely at that stage the doc will be able to say when they can and give a definitive timeline?
@Butchie34 (Comment 9) : I don’t think the Shatks doc has enough confidence in his position yet to deliver bad news to the coaches…
@robdylan (Comment 10) : Doc needs to be confident…it is in the best interest of the players and their futures.
Now we have Deysel out for even longer…bladdy frustrating!
@Butchie34 (Comment 9) : On the news last night it was reported that Bis and Willem were running freely.
Maybe Doc du Plessis needs to take the medical team to task.
Not like he’s doing much on the field these days… *cast off*…
@Salmonoid (Comment 12) :
Running is slightly different to playing 80 minutes of Super Rugby… to be completely fair.
@Bokhoring (Comment 4) : They’re the best trio in the competition, it will take quite an effort to keep them in check
🙄 ..
And JPP?