South Africa on Monday played down injury concerns in the camp, despite confirmation that veteran lock Bakkies Botha is not responding to treatment for his Achilles problem.

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Centre Jean de Villiers and veteran lock Victor Matfield, according to team doctor Craig Roberts, will both be sidelined for about 10 days.

However, of more concern is Botha.

Despite denials last week that his Achilles injury may force him out of the World Cup, Roberts confirmed on Monday that he is not recovering.

“He’s got an Achilles tendon problem,” Roberts said.

“He hasn’t responded as well as anticipated.

“We’re still working on it and haven’t made decision in terms of how we’re going to deal with it,” Roberts added.

Botha trained in the gym with the non-playing members of the squad on Monday, while the match 22 was given a day to recover. The team returns to field training in Wellington on Tuesday.

The other setbacks were suffered  in South Africa’s narrow 17-16 victory over Wales on Sunday – when they lost De Villiers halfway through the first half and Matfield early in the second half to injury.

Roberts confirmed De Villiers had suffered a “grade one rib cartilage sprain”.

“It was a more of a precaution, we didn’t want to make it worse on the field, that’s why we made a decision to bring him off,” Roberts said.

“Matfield started feeling his hamstring tightening up, so with a long tournament ahead, we decided to pull him to try to protect his hamstring. He’ll also need 10 days or so to get over that.”

After a hard-hitting game in which South Africa only took the decisive lead in the 65th minute and made 178 tackles, coach Peter de Villiers said he was happy his team came through victorious and largely unscathed.

“Of all the pools, it was the toughest opener of them all and I’m pleased to get through with only two injuries,” De Villiers said.

De Villiers said that the management had prepared to manage niggling injuries before the tournament.

“We always knew that what you gain in this team in terms of experience, you forfeit in terms of fitness in the week following a game,” he said.

“The older you get the longer you take to get over the bumps and bruises.

“But we have a good squad here and a good medical team and the focus is on getting the players ready for when they run out on match day.

“We put in the hard yards in, in terms of conditioning, before we got here. That was banked and it’s now a question of maintaining conditioning and getting players triggered. More training is not always better.

“This was undoubtedly the toughest opening game in the tournament and to get through it with a win and only three injuries in the squad is not bad.”

The Springboks play Fiji in Wellington on Saturday.