Kolisi copped a high shot from Sam Cane during Saturday's first Test against the ABs in Johannesburg and looked certain to miss the second Test after suffering a suspected fracture.
And while he will still need to face an extended spell on the sidelines, Kolisi will wait until after this Saturday’s clash in Cape Town to get the injury properly taken care of.
“After we did all the scans, we said to Siya ‘Will you go into contact half-hearted, because your nose is swollen and your cheek is blown out’ and he said ‘Let’s see’,” Erasmus revealed.
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“Internally, we announced the team with Siya starting / Marco (van Staden), but on Monday Siya did all the contact sessions, on Tuesday he went right through and I didn’t see anything today. It can’t break any further, so yeah he might look like Kwagga (Smith)!”
Erasmus also explained why the Boks opted not to cite former All Blacks captain Cane for the high shot on Kolisi.
Cane was sent off during the World Cup final between the sides following a high tackle on Jesse Kriel but avoided any sanctions for the tackle at Ellis Park.
“Siya’s injury was obviously when Sam hit him. To be honest with you, I don’t think he did it on purpose,” said Erasmus. “A yellow card might have been appropriate or a penalty might have been appropriate, but I told him afterwards that we weren’t going to cite.”
He added: “You have 12 hours after a game to cite and if the Citing Commissioner picked it up and thought it met the red card threshold then they investigate, but they went through everything and on this specific one it didn’t come up as breaking the red card threshold.”
Erasmus also revealed the former All Blacks skipper apologised for the tackle.
“He came over and apologised. When you look at the action, yes, he could go a bit lower; but I don’t think he went for Siya’s head. It was just a head-on-head, it wasn’t with his shoulder it was his head on Siya’s nose. Sometimes it goes for you and against you.
“The poor guy was red-carded in a World Cup final. It wouldn’t have been nice to see him get a red card again.”
Get ready for a rugby showdown like no other! 🏉
— Springboks (@Springboks) September 5, 2024
It’s the homecoming match between the Springboks and the All Blacks at the DHL Stadium, and it’s set to be a spectacular clash of titans 🧬🇿🇦#ForeverGreenForeverGold#Springboks pic.twitter.com/uTqXv6EW3J
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