Handre Pollard fitness a boost to Springboks | The Citizen

In a major boost to the Springboks‘ end of year tour plans, flyhalf Handre Pollard is set to be fit and ready to go after he received a more promising second opinion on an injury that had threatened to rule him out for the rest of the year.

Pollard suffered the knee injury during the Boks’ Rugby Championship loss against Australia in Adelaide, with an initial prognosis indicating that he would out of action until at least December, however he is now set to return to action early next month.

Pollard was selected by new club Leicester Tigers as a traveling reserve for their past weekend English Premiership win over Northampton Saints, and should make his debut for them sometime in the next few weeks.

The news will come as a relief to Bok coach Jacques Nienaber, who told reporters that he expected Pollard to be out of the rest of the international season, and with the Boks currently in a bit of a flyhalf crisis this will significantly alleviate that.

Speaking to English publication Leicester Mercury earlier this week, Pollard admitted that he was almost fully fit and ready to go.

“The body is good. I am really coming along nicely. I’m just trying to get as much done as possible. I’ve still got a couple of boxes to tick,” said Pollard.

“From the initial diagnosis we had in Australia, I’ve come back to London and got a different one, which was a lot more positive. I’m working hard and it’s really feeling good. So we will see how we go on from here.”

Initial fears

The initial fears were that Pollard had suffered a reoccurrence of an ACL injury that he suffered when playing for Montpellier in France, but that was thankfully not the case.

“This is completely different. It’s a little bit of a tear in the meniscus. It’s a lot better than we originally thought and it’s going really well,” explained Pollard.

“We’re still taking it day by day. We’ve still got a couple of boxes to tick but I am very excited and optimistic. I should be good to go for the Autumn series.”

Due to being released from the Bok squad earlier than expected, Pollard was able to get settled in Leicester sooner than estimated.

“I didn’t expect to be here so soon. I got to settle in under calmer circumstances. My Mrs has been here for a few months now, she’s sorted out the house. I missed all the heavy lifting and the building of the cupboards and that’s been great,” said Pollard.