All Blacks centre Billy Proctor will fly back to New Zealand this week and miss the entirety of his side's Test series against South Africa after picking up an injury in their victory over the Stormers.
The 27-year-old suffered a fractured shoulder blade in the opening match of their South African tour on Friday evening, being forced off five minutes into the second half of the clash in Cape Town, which the All Blacks won 38-21.
While he won't require surgery, Proctor is set to spend between 10 and 12 weeks on the sidelines and will play no further part in the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series.
Injury blow
“Scans have revealed Billy Proctor has a shoulder blade fracture,” read a statement from the All Blacks on Sunday. “This will not require surgery but will take approximately 10 to 12 weeks of recovery, meaning Billy has been ruled out of the remainder of the tour.
“He will return home to NZ later this week.”
Who will replace Proctor in the squad is yet to be confirmed, with head coach Dave Rennie considering handing a recall to fly-half Richie Mo'unga, who is eligible for selection again after making two NPC appearances for Canterbury since his return from Japan.
The injury blow comes after Rennie lost hooker George Bell to a training injury last week, with the front rower replaced in the squad by Bradley Slater.
Joe Marler warned
Former England international Joe Marler has been given some words of warning after it was announced he had joined the cast of BBC show Gladiators.
Competing under the name 'Mauler', the ex-Harlequins prop has become the rebooted show's first celebrity Gladiator and will go head-to-head with members of the public in the upcoming new series.
However, he is not the first famous athlete to make the jump from professional sport to the iconic arena, with former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies joining the line-up of the original show as 'Amazon' in 1995.
Now, Davies has drawn on her experience on the show to pen some advice for Marler ahead of his Gladiators debut, warning him that old rugby injuries could rear their ugly head again due the "rough and tumble" involved.
"I was 32 when I first appeared as Amazon," she wrote in her column for the Times. "The rough and tumble of the games on an already well-used body, and at a time of a very different health-and-safety environment to what’s around today, led to me being injured during Gladiators.
"In the game called Pyramid, we had to grab contestants and throw them down to prevent them from getting to the top. There were often some bad tangles. I got tangled up with a super-fit police officer, and it ended my run: snap, went the ACL in my knee joint.
"At 36, you’re a spring chicken," Davies added. "Even so, take care with any residual injuries from rugby days, especially anything sustained towards the end of your career. They can be accumulative and recovery can be slower."
The former Olympic silver medallist added that she struggled to balance her athletic mindset with the entertainment aspect of the role, but she has faith that Marler will found that side of things easier to adapt to.
"Mauler is your character, Joe," she wrote. "You get to be an actor. I didn’t find that easy. I think you’ll do better than me.
Enjoy — but be prepared to lose some of your rugby identity. I remember being in the supermarket one day and a lady came up to me and asked if I’d sign her son’s autograph book.
"'Of course', I said, all smiles, but as she handed the book to her son over by the frozen chicken cabinet, I heard him say: 'Mum!? Who’s Sharron Davies?'."
Schools match ends in stabbing
A schools rugby match in South Africa ended in horrific scenes after a teenage boy was stabbed, with police launching an attempted murder investigation.
The annual fixture between hosts Hoërskool Bredasdorp and Hoërskool Punt on Saturday saw police called to the school in the Western Cape after a 17-year-old boy sustained stab wounds on its grounds.
The teenager is currently in a stable condition in hospital, with police now investigating the incident. No arrest has been made so far.
Provincial police spokesperson, Constable Ndakhe Gwala, told IOL: "A 17-year-old boy sustained stab wounds on his back and is currently receiving medical treatment.
"The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation, and no arrest has been effected at this stage."
Gwala did not say which school the injured boy attended or whether the person who stabbed him was a student. However, in a social media post, Hoërskool Bredasdorp said that the boy had been stabbed on its grounds by a child who was not one of its students.
"A child who is not attached to Bredasdorp stabbed a boy from Punt with an object on our school grounds," the post read. "The boy was treated at the hospital and is stable.
"The police are investigating the matter further. We wish the injured boy a speedy recovery."
