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Durban - Springbok scrumhalf Rudy Paige has been ruled out of this weekend’s Rugby Championship clash against the All Blacks with concussion.
Paige, in his first Springbok start, left the field in the second half after receiving a nasty knee to the head.
He has not recovered, with coach Allister Coetzee confirming that he woke up on Monday morning with headaches.
He will now follow the concussion protocol and will not feature this week.
Coetzee confirmed that nobody had been called up as a replacement as yet, but that he would explore that option later on Monday.
“Rudy Paige definitely is concussed,” Coetzee said in Durban on Monday.
“He will continue with normal protocol.”
Coetzee does still have Faf de Klerk and Francois Hougaard at his disposal, though, but has used Hougaard on the wing in recent weeks.
The coach hinted that, should there be a replacement called up, it would in all likelihood be a scrumhalf.
“I think we’re fine,” said Coetzee.
“Scrumhalf is a specialist position and anything can happen later in the week. We will have to look at a third scrumhalf coming in.
“There is enough versatility in the team.
“The players that we are looking at to come in at 9, not to play, are Piet van Zyl from the Bulls and Nic Groom, who has been part of the squad. Those are the two candidates at this point in time.”
In other injury news, Pieter-Steph du Toit is “fine” after his knock to the hip while calls on Bryan Habana (knee) and Jesse Kriel (hamstring) would be made later in the week.
“I’ll take my time with that and give them as much time as I can for them to recover for Saturday,” Coetzee said of Kriel and Habana.
