England has suffered a double injury blow before Saturday’s Test against the Springboks in London.

The Test at the Home of English rugby will be the first time these two teams meet since the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final in which the Springboks prevailed with a 16-15 win at Stade de France in Paris.

The semi-final of marked with controversy after the Test because of well-documented comments the Springbok hooker, Bongi Mbonambi, allegedly hurled at the flanker, Tom Curry. Nothing came of this and Mbonambi was cleared to play in the final, albeit he played for just a few minutes against the All Blacks before coming off with an injury.

Bongi Mbonambi and Tom Curry. Photo: X

The hard English loose-forward Curry as well as the winger, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, have both been ruled out of what is labelled as the “grudge Test” against the back-to-back World Champions. Both players sustained head knocks during the 42-37 defeat to the Wallabies in London on the weekend and due to the HIA protocol will not be available for selection.

The England coach, Steve Borthwick, confirmed that Curry will not be in action against the World Champions this week, and stated that it’s a matter of adapting.

“If you lose a world-class player early in the game it certainly has an impact,” said Borthwick. “I thought Alex Dombrandt came on and played really well, but clearly the balance of the back-row changed at that point.

“You have to adapt to those things and we took a few knocks and bangs and we had to change things in that first half quite early, and then that continued through the second half.

“I will be waiting for the full medical report to understand where everyone is at, but I think everyone saw in the way Tom was down, he will be unavailable next week.”

Saturday’s Test between England and the Springboks at Twickenham kicks off at 19:40.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek mvh