Good Roos news for Stormers

It has been a bleak week for the Stormers, but a silver lining to the cloud is news that No 8 Evan Roos didn’t suffer a season-ending injury as feared initially.

Roos was hurt in clearing from a ruck by Ulster’s Duane Vermeulen and Nick Timoney in the United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at Ravenhill last Friday. Coach John Dobson gave a less than rosy prognosis, saying he would be surprised if the Bok No 8 played for the Stormers again this season.

But it appears Roos may be ready by the time URC play-offs start in the first week in May.

“He’s got some damage on his MCL [medial collateral ligament], but the ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] is intact, so that means he’ll hopefully be back for the start of the play-offs or a little earlier,” said assistant coach Dawie Snyman.

“Evan went to the doctor for scans, and luckily we got some good news. The injury is not too bad,” said a relieved Snyman.

Roos has been in the wars of late. Last season’s URC player of the tournament had an untimely setback when he injured a rib in the Springboks’ clash with England at Twickenham last November. He returned to play only in January when he came off the bench in the Stormers’ win over Clermont Auvergne in Cape Town, and was in the starting line-up last week in Belfast.

Time on the sidelines can be dispiriting. “The first thing you do is put your arm around him. I know it’s frustrating, especially for a young player like him and after the season he had last year,” said Snyman of the 23-year-old.

“This season he started well, and obviously got an opportunity with the Boks and played well against England and he got injured. He played a great half of rugby against Clermont, and he was looking forward to building on that. Unfortunately, that is part of rugby. Players should understand that. It is frustrating, but we will definitely keep him about and keep motivating him.

“The great thing about our squad is that all our injured players are at the facility [the Stormers training facility in Cape Town’s northern suburbs] and they start helping us with analysis on the teams and they are just always communicating.”

As feared, flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis and hooker JJ Kotze will not make the trip this weekend to Durban where the Stormers meet the Sharks after they were bumped on their heads.