The Sharks have been dealt another cruel injury blow as centre Paul Jordaan suffered a season ending injury during a training session in Sydney early this week.
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Jordaan injured his ACL when the players were playing touch rugby during a light training session to run out the jetlag.
The blow comes at the worst possible time for the team from the East Coast as they have already been struck down by 15 other injuries in their squad – the most recent of them being Tendai Mtawarira this last weekend in their loss to the Cheetahs.
Coach John Plumtree said: “We’re very disappointed to lose Paul Jordaan, he’s out for the rest of the season.
“Paul suffered an ACL (knee ligament) injury [6-9 months out]. He was playing touch rugby, we were just having a light run, jogging out the jetlag and he stepped, was caught and his knee collapsed. It’s a big blow for us, we’re all disappointed for Paul and for the team,” the coach added.
The Sharks did not go on tour in the most buoyant mood and an injury like this is something that can only deplete the morale of the squad.
“It’s the last thing you want, the side is already depleted and to lose a guy in your first training session is pretty depressing, but there’s not much we can do.
“We just have to dig in and do our best. We’ve worked really hard on our game, trying to improve our game, trying to improve our attack, but it is really difficult with all these setbacks,” Plumtree explained.
A slight positive for the Sharks is the return of JP Pietersen who can cover the role in the No.13 jersey, a position he played in during their 2012 campaign.
Another player that, for the Sharks’ attacking endeavours sake, could be making a come back soon is Lwazi Mvovo. The Springbok wing could be flown to Australasia as a replacement.
“Hopefully we’ll get Lwazi [Mvovo] back and there’s a possibility of bringing JP [Pietersen] back into the midfield, we’ll make those decisions once we know the status with Lwazi. We might be forced to play JP in the midfield, it’s not his primary position obviously, but he did a good job for us last year with his x-factor,” Plumtree mentioned.
The Sharks hope to have Pietersen back for their clash next week with the Highlanders.
It doesn’t rain, it pours.
1 @ Loosehead:
Hello Loosehead yes it sure has gone bad for the Sharks with all their injuries feel sorry for them. I remember before the season saying to Sharkie here that really the Sharks were in the driving seat of all SA teams to win the Super 15 at the moment in terms of where they were with players – good combination of senior players and promising youngsters but it just shows how quickly things can unravel with all the injuries mounting up.
@ Bullscot: Morning Bullscot. The thing for me is this; the Sharks are in the kak with all theses injuries, what they do is import a whack of Lions, now I have no problm with that, what does it say about the players on contract to the Sharks? Are they shit? Then why contract them in the first place? Where are the players who are being groomed at the Sharks Academy?
Why not write the tour off and take a few youngsters along and blood them? Create their own experienced players and show confidence in them.
Have a look at the Lions loan players at the Sharks and Stormers, who of them are actually performing? Rhodes has been ok, Franco VDM has been ok at the lineout and has offered nothing else. Taute was shit, Jakies has been shit. This is not an attack on the Lions players.
Agreed, when the Stormers had their injury concern last year the pulled from within their own ranks, think 5 of the forwards packs at one stage was still allowed to play for the U21 side.
Same the year before at fly half, even the scrum halves stood in at one stage
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