South Africa’s Springboks will be sweating on the fitness of back Jean de Villiers and forward Willem Alberts when they arrive two days ahead of their clash with Ireland.

The Springboks have been hit hard with injuries to their centres for this tour and now De Villiers threatens to make matters worse.

Coach Peter de Villiers had so much depth at centre during the TriNations that he was forced to name centre Jean de Villiers at wing as he did not want to miss out on his talents.

However following squad withdrawals through injury from Wynand Olivier, Jaque Fourie and Juan de Jongh the only starting centre from this season in the squad is Jean de Villiers who did not train on Wednesday.

Both De Villiers and Willem Alberts missed the squad’s final training session in Cape Town on Wednesday which leaves coach Peter de Villiers with the worry of an ever-expanding casualty list.

Adi Jacobs who last played for the Boks in November last year was called up earlier this week as de Jongh’s replacement and is likely to start against one of the world’s best centre combinations of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy.

“We have had our challenges with the number of injuries, particularly among the centres, but that’s not unusual in international rugby,” De Villiers told the Telegraph on departure on Wednesday night.

“The players have shown a great attitude in training and we now have to take that on to the field. Ireland have a good record against us in Dublin in recent years.”

The injury curse that has hit South Africa’s rugby players has seen the Springboks lose flanker Schalk Burger, centre Juan de Jongh and scrum-half Ricky Januarie – since the squad was announced on Saturday night.