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South African Rugby
Deysel drafted in by Springboks
ESPNscrum Staff
July 6, 2011

Sharks loose forward Jean Deysel has been added to the Springbok training squad due to a growing list of injury concerns.

The 26-year-old Deysel, who won his only Test cap against Italy in 2009, joined the rest of the squad in Cape Town on Wednesday following injuries to fellow loose forwards Juan Smith, Schalk Burger, Willem Alberts and Duane Vermeulen.

Smith is a major concern with a long-standing Achilles injury while Burger was the latest to join the casualty list after picking up a thumb injury in the Stormers' Super Rugby semi-final defeat to the Crusaders last weekend. Alberts was injured in the Sharks' final Super Rugby outing of the season while Vermeulen missed the Stormers' play-off push with a knee injury.

In related news, Andy Marinos, the Springboks' general manager, has revealed there will no official "resting" of players in this year's Tri-Nations although injuries may demand some enforced recuperation.

"No resting," Marinos told iol.co.za. "We're doing medicals now to see where the guys are. Graham Henry has said it, Robbie Deans has said it. Peter [de Villiers] has said it. None of us really know the full impact of what this new Super Rugby tournament is all about. What we haven't seen is as fluent a rotation (of Springbok players) as we would have liked but we also understood that teams are fighting for survival every week. We have to assess our men and see where they are physically and take our decisions from there.

"We've been holding our breath for the past 15 or 16 weeks of Super Rugby to hope that the impact on the players was minimised. I think it was quite a good campaign; the teams have done well. Obviously results at the weekend didn't go our way but we think we are in good shape going into the World Cup. The biggest problem is now the symptomatic injuries. Some of the guys have been playing in a degenerative state [with niggles], and that's not going to be rectified in two or three weeks.

"Notwithstanding what happened to Schalk [Burger], we have been fairly fortunate and certain key players have been able to rest at certain stages of the tournament. We'll only know in the next few days what sort of state the guys are in."

Elsewhere, the South African Rugby Union have moved to correct reports that Jacques Nienaber had been added to the Springboks' management team for the Rugby World Cup. The highly-respected Stormers defensive coach is only assisting the team on a short-term basis and will return to his duties with Western Province for the Currie Cup.

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