Cape Town - The Southern Kings arrived in
Johannesburg on Monday morning after a two-week tour of Wales and
Ireland to get their debut season in the PRO14 competition underway.
“Both (props) Ettienne Swanepoel and
Rossouw de Klerk will unfortunately not be available for the next match against
Leinster on Saturday, September 16 since they failed their mandatory head
impact assessments (HIA’s). Both suffered blows to the head and in Ettienne’s
case he was knocked unconscious for a while. We are very
pleased to confirm though that he has not suffered any damage to his neck as
was initially feared,” said Dr Clement Plaatjies.
Among other bumps and bruises that he and
his medical team had to attend to, Plaatjies was also called upon to stitch a
gash near the eye of prop Schalk Ferreira and a cut to the back of
hooker Michael Willemse’s head.
Both are however expected to recover in time for the
visit of Leinster this weekend.
The match, set to take place at the Nelson Mandela Bay
Stadium, is scheduled to kick off at 14:15.
After being axed from Super Rugby after a more than satisfactory 2017 season in which they won six of 15 matches, the Kings have struggled in their opening two PRO14 matches, going down 57-10 to the Scarlets and 32-10 to Connacht.