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Cape Town - Reserve flyhalf Gary van Aswegen was ruled out for the rest of the Currie Cup season after picking up an ankle injury during Western Province's training session on Wednesday.
"There was a tackle situation and in the collision Gary fell awkwardly," said WP coach Allister Coetzee.
"Unfortunately he went over on the same ankle (that was injured earlier this year) and looks like that's very much the end of his Currie Cup season.
"It’s the same injury, the same ankle, that he did in the Super Rugby competition.
"He'll go for further scans to determine the extent of the damage but he'll be out of the game for a while.
“It’s a big blow for us as after having four flyhalves at the start of the year."
Earlier in September, WP lost Kurt Coleman, who broke his jaw and was ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Another flyhalf, Burton Francis, who had limited playing time for the Stormers during the Super Rugby season, moved to the SWD Eagles.
"At least we have one (Demetri Catrakilis) still standing," Coetzee said.
"If we need flyhalf cover we'll look to (fullback) Joe Pietersen or (scrumhalf) Louis Schreuder when the time comes."
Coetzee confirmed that their backline talisman, Gio Aplon, who left the field in the second half of their victory over Griquas last week with an ankle injury, would be unavailable until next month.
"It now appears that Aplon’s injury is worse than we initially thought,” he said.
"He has an ankle ligament tear and by the looks of things he could be out of action for three weeks or even longer."
The strong-running Damian de Allende was moved into the run-on XV as Aplon's replacement in the WP side, which was named on Wednesday, for this weekend's clash against the Golden Lions at Newlands.
Flanker Tyrone Holmes returns after serving a week's suspension and Coetzee said he was pleased to field a settled loose trio again.
"I don't like fiddling with the loose forward combination but Tyrone has such a high work rate that it was good for him to start at blindside again," Coetzee said.
"Don Armand, who played as a loosie in his place last week, returns to lock."
Flank Rynhardt Elstadt has recovered from a rib injury and started training this week.
"Elstadt needs another week of training with the team before he can be considered," Coetzee said.
"He's been working hard during gym sessions and we'll see how he does at training next week.
"(Eighthman) Nick Koster is not ready yet. He's joined in at training and I'm looking for him to spend some time with his club so that he can have a run in club rugby."
The clash against the Lions kicks off at 14:00 on Saturday.
Teams:
Western Province:
15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 JP du Plessis, 12. Marcel Brache, 11 Damian de Allende, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Jebb Sinclair, 7 Tyrone Holmes, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Don Armand, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Deon Carstens, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 19 Helmut Lehmann, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Berton Klaasen, 22 Patrick Howard
Golden Lions:
15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Deon Helberg, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Dylan Des Fountain, 11 Ruan Combrinck, 10 Butch James, 9 Michael Bondesio, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Jaco Kriel, 6 Cobus Grobbelaar, 5 Franco Van der Merwe, 4 Michael Rhodes, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg (captain)
Substitutes: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Etienne Oosthuizen, 19 Willie Britz, 20 Ross Cronje, 21 Deon van Rensburg, 22 James Kamana
