Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s hopes of playing in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship decider for the DHL Stormers against Munster have been dashed.
The Western Province playmaker is believed to have fractured his hand during a Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Friday, a 22-14 win for WP at Athlone Stadium.
Recovery can take up to six weeks and his participation in the remainder of the competition, with three rounds left before the playoffs after this week’s fixtures, is also in jeopardy.
He has 14 appearances for the Stormers this season, including last week’s URC semi-final, so the 21-year-old’s absence for next Saturday’s showpiece in Cape Town is a blow to the defending champions.
Speaking in a WP media conference post match on Friday, head coach John Dobson expressed concern about the youngster’s injury: “It doesn’t look very good, his hand, I think he has gone for x-rays now.
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“It might be a fracture which … look, he was probably going to be involved next week [against Munster] so that’s a bit of a blow.
“But he needed to play, I’m not beating ourselves up. He didn’t play much last week, I think it was like six or seven minutes, so we needed to play him.
“I dunno where that leaves us [in terms of possible replacements] … I feel like Old Mother Hubbard!”
Feinberg-Mngomezulu can cover flyhalf, centre and fullback, and Dobson hinted that WP skipper Jean-Luc du Plessis or No 15 Clayton Blommetjies could step up for the URC final, as both have featured for the Stormers in 2022-23.
Du Plessis scored a try, two conversions and a penalty on Friday, while Blommetjies has notched six URC tries since joining the title-holders this season.
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