Phillips: Suspended indefinitely

Phillips, who recently completed a move from the Ospreys to French club Bayonne, was handed the suspension by the Welsh Rugby Union after an incident outside a McDonalds in Cardiff in the early hours of last Tuesday.

The 28-year-old has made the number nine jersey his own since the arrival of Warren Gatland as head coach in 2007, playing a major part in the 2008 Grand Slam and going on to be one of the stand-out performers on the 2009 Lions tour of South Africa.

He was recently named in Gatland's preliminary 45-man squad for the World Cup but has been advised not to report for squad duties following his ban, putting his participation at the global showpiece in doubt.

Wales will open their World Cup campaign in New Zealand by meeting the reigning world champions at Wellington's Westpac Stadium on September 11, and former Worcester back Delport believes it would be a big boost for the Boks if Phillips were to be absent.

"It's good news for us because Mike is such a key part to the Welsh structure," Delport told BBC Sport.

"He adds so much to the Wales team and he's definitely one of the stand-out players.

"To have one of the stand-out players out of the set-up would be advantageous for the South Africa set-up.

"He offers a lot of physicality, especially round the breakdown. He reminds me a lot of Joost van der Westhuizen when he played for South Africa.

"He's really aggressive in the defence and especially against a team like South Africa you're going to need that physicality and aggressiveness going into the contact."

Phillips is the latest Wales player to attract unwanted headlines.

Gavin Henson was suspended for a week while at Toulon after being involved in a disagreement with two of his team-mates, while Andy Powell left Wasps after being involved in a bar-room brawl that left the back-rower needing stitches in a head wound.

Delport believes these problems are only serving to heap more pressure on the Wales camp.

"If you play international rugby you are going to target any weakness," Delport said.

"Unfortunately, I think a lot of the off-field antics that's been happening in the last couple of months [have] put a lot of pressure on the Welsh preparations.

"Maybe not going into the competition with the best of results recently added to the discipline issues of the key players puts a lot of pressure on the Welsh preparations.

"Certainly this will be looked at. It might be a bit of cohesion in the team structure and the team spirit of the Welsh side and that's really going to be tested.

"South Africa's quite a physical side. We strive on physical dominance of the opponents and that's really going to be tested out on the field.

"If you don't have that team spirit to stick together when the going gets tough a lot of times teams will break up. That's really going to get tested in that match."