JOHANNESBURG - The Lions are preparing themselves for bad news this week regarding star centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg whose further participation in the 2017 Super Rugby season is in the balance.
The hard-running inside centre tore his collateral ligament in his right knee and also damaged his posterior lateral corner in his right knee playing against the Stormers on Saturday and is anticipating a lengthy period on the sidelines.
Janse van Rensburg, one of the stars of the Lions team this year having scored five tries in six matches, will be assessed by a knee specialist in the coming days after an MRI scan of his right knee revealed the bad news on Monday.
If Janse van Rensburg is ruled out of action for a lengthy period, he will be the second centre of the Lions to be sidelined following the season-ending injury suffered by Howard Mnisi in their first game of the current Super Rugby campaign.
The good news though is the man who replaced Janse van Rensburg at Newlands on Saturday, Harold Vorster, has been a regular in the team this season after spending last year on the sidelines (also because of a knee injury) and was named Man of the Match in the win against the Stormers. He combined brilliantly with Lionel Mapoe, who himself has only recently returned from three weeks out of action because of a hand injury, and the two should man the midfield when the Lions next run out, against the Jaguares at Ellis Park on Friday.
The only other injury concern following the trip to Cape Town, concerns flank Ruan Ackermann, who bruised his left knee and will only take contact again on Wednesday.
All the other Stormers slayers, including fullback Andries Coetzee who passed a late fitness test to play in Cape Town after suffering concussion symptoms last week, are fit and ready to exact revenge on the men from Argentina - the only side to have beaten Ackermann’s men so far this season.
Meanwhile, the Lions are still waiting to hear when star flanker Jaco Kriel has to appear before a judicial hearing.
Kriel was yellow carded, and subsequently cited, for a late charge on Stormers No 10 Robert du Preez during Saturday’s match.
Following initial consideration by the Sanzaar Foul Play Review Committee, Kriel will have to appear before a hearing, but the date, time and venue is yet to be determined. It is almost certain though the flanker will cop some kind of ban, which would rule him out of at least this weekend’s match against the Jaguares.
Should that be the case, it would open the door for Sevens star Kwagga Smith to come into the starting team, with Cyle Brink, Robert Kruger or Fabian Booysen shifting onto the bench.
With the Lions coming off a good win against the Stormers and in a good space right now, Ackermann is unlikely to tinker too much with the side that ran out at Newlands.
He’ll announce his line-up on Wednesday.