Springboks fear injured Vermeulen could miss Lions series
SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus says injured loose-forward Duane Vermeulen could miss the series between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions.
Bulls captain Vermeulen limped out of Friday night's nail-biting 31-27 Rainbow Cup victory by the men from Pretoria against the Stormers at Loftus.
The loose forward is part of the 46-player squad selected for the series.
"I did not talk to him, (Springbok coach) Jacques (Nienaber) spoke to him and the medical staff but what can we say, it looked bad, and Duane went limped off with an ankle from the field so early and we are fearing for the worst," says Erasmus.
At the same time Nienaber is excited about the inclusion of a number of uncapped players in the squad.
"It was a tight call on a number of positions but if you look at the squad, there is a lot of experience there and we only lost three players since the World Cup.
"Our first thing was to try to replace those players in the like the Beast, in the likes of Francios Louw, and firstly we wanted to look for players in Schalk Brits to replace them," adds Nienaber.
"Obviously, there is a couple of new caps, only eight, and those guys playing abroad, and it is a very exciting squad."
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