South Africa’s Malcolm Marx is out of the Rugby World Cup; hooker suffered knee injury in training between Scotland and Romania games and will miss the rest of the holders’ title defence
Sky Sports Eleanor Roper reports as defending champions South Africa get their World Cup campaign off to a winning start against Scotland.
South Africa hooker Malcolm Marx has been ruled out of the remainder of the Rugby World Cup in France with a long-term knee injury.
Marx, who was not included in South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber’s matchday squad to face Romania in Bordeaux on Sunday, went down at training on Wednesday after having his knee caught in contact.
With the Springboks having the luxury of an enlarged 33-man squad in France for the international showpiece, and sufficient cover at hooker within the squad, he will not be replaced in the squad at this stage.
- RWC 2023: What did we learn from round one?Rugby World Cup team guides: Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool DStream top sporting events with Sky NOW
“First and foremost, we are extremely disappointed for Malcolm, and we wish him all the best in his recovery,” said Nienaber.
“He’s been working very hard to be in the best form possible for the tournament, and it’s tragic that his campaign has ended this way.
“As a team we will remain in contact with him, as we do with all injured players, and support him as much as we can through the recovery process.
“We have enough cover at hooker with Bongi [Mbonambi] and Deon [Fourie] in the squad, while Marco [van Staden] has also been training there and has been named on all our team sheets so far as a hooker option.
“We’ll assess our needs for the rest of the tournament and confirm who we are calling up as an additional player later this week.”
The Springboks will hope the news doesn’t stall their good start to the World Cup campaign, as they hope to follow up their 18-3 victory against Scotland with a win against Romania on Sunday.
