Clean bill of health for Wales

Published: Monday, 12. September, 2011 in category Northern Hemishere
Jenkins: Should be available

And in a further boost, prop Gethin Jenkins and fly-half Stephen Jones remain on course to be available for next Sunday's critical Pool D encounter against Samoa in Hamilton.

That would leave calf muscle injury victim Ryan Jones as Wales' only unavailable player, although the medical team hope to have him back in time for an October 2 appointment with Fiji.

"We have done our injury assessment from yesterday, and the initial findings are we've got no major concerns for next weekend at all, which is great news," said Prav Mathema, the Welsh Rugby Union's national medical performance manager. "I think in a competition you have to expect injuries. It's kind of a game of attrition.

"Certainly, we were expecting to have a few more bumps and bruises than we've had from yesterday, and we have been fortunate on the strength of our assessments so far."

Jenkins has not played since January, while Jones took no part in Wales' World Cup warm-up schedule last month. Both players have had calf problems.

"Gethin and Stephen we are looking to integrate them both back into training this week," added Mathema.

"And if they can come through a pretty high-intensity week leading up to the Samoa game, then we can let the coaches have them for selection.

"Ryan took a part in full training (last week), and unfortunately he had a slight reaction which we are not willing to really push and risk and have him out for a long period of time.

"We took him back and reintegrated him into treatment and rehab. We are looking at the Fiji game for him.

"Time is very tight being in a tournament, but we are still earmarking that match and we are hopeful he will be ready."

South Africa, meanwhile, are set to be without lock Victor Matfield and centre Jean de Villiers for their second World Cup Pool D match against Fiji in Wellington on Saturday.

Matfield and De Villiers will each be out for around 10 days after making early exits due to hamstring and rib injuries, respectively, against Wales.

The news comes as a further blow to the Springboks, who could yet be forced to replace lock Bakkies Botha due to his ongoing Achilles problem that sidelined him from the Wales game.

"Bakkies hasn't responded as well as we anticipated," said South Africa team doctor Craig Roberts.

"But we are still working on it and we haven't made a decision as to how we're going to deal with him at this stage."