{"id":17644,"date":"2025-04-13T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/17644\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T22:29:08","slug":"eben-etzebeth-return-date-firmly-set-as-springboks-star-close-to-full-fitnes-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/17644\/","title":{"rendered":"Eben Etzebeth return date firmly set as Springboks star close to full fitnes : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sharks are set to receive a boost ahead of their upcoming tour to the United Kingdom after it was revealed that Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth is close to a return to action.<\/b><\/p>\n

The 33-year-old has been ruled out since last December after he sustained a head injury during the Sharks\u2019 victory over Exeter Chiefs during an Investec Champions Cup pool match.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Springboks\u2019 most capped player has been battling concussion with his return being regularly delayed due to the symptoms returning.<\/p>\n

However, Sharks<\/a> director of rugby Neil Powell<\/a> has revealed that the experienced second-row is likely to be part of the Durban-based outfit\u2019s touring party for their matches against Edinburgh and Ulster.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s on target for that\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Eben will be back for the match against Edinburgh. He\u2019s on target for that,\u201d Powell told Rapport\u2018s sports podcast.<\/p>\n

Much has been said and written about Etzebeth\u2019s concussion issue in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

In February, the Sharks issued an injury update which stated that Etzebeth<\/a> has \u201csuffered a return-of-symptoms of his recent concussion.<\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cThe Sharks take this injury very seriously and player welfare remains our top priority. Eben is being managed by concussion specialists. He will be cleared to return once they are fully satisfied that his injury has completely resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edinburgh lure Scotland international away from South Africa while Exeter Chiefs add ANOTHER scrum-half<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Concussion guru\u2019 consulted<\/p>\n

Early in March, Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus stressed that it\u2019s important not to rush Etzebeth back into action but also revealed that he had consulted a \u201cconcussion guru\u201d on the ongoing issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually drove through to Stellenbosch the other day to meet with Dr Pierre Viviers, the concussion guru, to just get a proper catchup so I could also understand the concussion setup again,\u201d he told reporters at a press conference in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a guy is totally concussion-free, he starts from a clean sheet again\u2026 and that\u2019s what we always want.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if a guy gets a normal concussion in a game and he fails the HIA protocols, then we will never bring a guy back too early.<\/p>\n

\u201cEben must just get to that stage now where they say he is concussion-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Sharks head coach John Plumtree has been reluctant expand on Etzebeth\u2019s ongoing concussion problem and said after one training session in March: \u201cI am too scared to tell you anything positive about Eben as every time I have done that before and raised my hopes we have ended up going backwards again.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it looks like Etzebeth has finally returned to full fitness and is set to return to action along with fellow Springboks stars Aphelele Fassi, Lukhanyo Am and Grant Williams.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> \u2018Still trying to figure it out\u2019 \u2013 Sharks coach details South African teams\u2019 struggles to \u2018honour\u2019 two tournaments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sharks are set to receive a boost ahead of their upcoming tour to the United Kingdom after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5316,225,11810,12,4151,934,2196,79,16,15,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-17644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-eben-etzebeth","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-neil-powell","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sharks","14":"tag-south-africa","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114333021865838243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}