Injured Burger flies home

Cape Town - South Africa loose forward Schalk Burger returned home on Monday for treatment on a torn quad muscle, an injury that will rule him out of Super Rugby for at least three weeks, his Stormers side said.

Burger, world rugby's player of the year in 2004, has struggled with injury and illness for more than two years, playing just four Super Rugby games in that period.

The latest injury forced him to miss the Stormers' 25-15 loss to the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday. The South African side will complete their four-match tour of Australia and New Zealand against the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday.

Burger, who will be 31 next month, went off after the first 20 minutes of the 2012 Super Rugby season with a knee injury and has seen limited action since.

His planned comeback at the end of 2012 was stymied by a calf muscle injury that required surgery to reduce pressure on a nerve that was influencing the muscle.

He then contracted a bout of bacterial meningitis that saw him hospitalised in March last year, followed by three operations to drain a cyst near his spine that was causing the nerve issue.

Burger returned to rugby late last year, making cameo appearances for Western Province in the Currie Cup and for the Barbarians against Fiji at Twickenham.

This year he has played three matches as the injury-hit Stormers have made their worst start to a Super Rugby campaign since 2001, losing four of their opening five games

Burger has 68 international caps having made his South Africa debut in 2003 and was part of the Springbok side that lifted the World Cup in 2007. He has also played 91 times in Super Rugby.