{"id":610217,"date":"2026-05-29T11:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610217\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:37:22","slug":"damian-willemses-potentially-catastrophic-stormers-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610217\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Willemse’s potentially ‘catastrophic’ Stormers incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Stormers are sweating on the outcome of a scan which will determine whether Damian Willemse will be able to feature in this weekend\u2019s United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final.<\/p>\n

John Dobson\u2019s men take on Cardiff on Saturday but they could be without both Willemse and Leolin Zas after they collided in training on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Another Springboks<\/a> star, fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/a>, also suffered a scare when he left the pitch feeling unwell, but it is understood that he should still be available for the URC<\/a> knockout clash.<\/p>\n

Both are doubts<\/p>\n

There is more concern over Feinberg-Mngomezulu\u2019s team-mates, with Willemse potentially injuring his knee and Zas picking up a suspected haematoma.<\/p>\n

It was certainly not great watching for Stormers<\/a> boss Dobson, who saw the incident unfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate watching practice on a Wednesday, I try not to watch. And then when I looked up, I just saw Zas and Damian hit each other at 100 k\u2019s an hour, and then two bodies lying there for long minutes,\u201d he told CapeTalk.<\/p>\n

According to reports, Willemse slipped when attempting to cover a kick through which led to him colliding with wing Zas.<\/p>\n

There was immediate worry from all involved with Dobson observing the actions of the medical staff to see the extent of the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always watch the physio\u2019s reaction, and then she\u2019s sort of going to call the doctor, and then the doctor starts waddling across,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Springboks legends\u2019 dig at new Stormers recruit as Jean de Villiers wary of Sharks repeat with Siya Kolisi and Cheslin Kolbe signings<\/a><\/p>\n

The Stormers head into the quarter-final encounter as heavy favourites, but Dobson admits that it would be devastating if both Willemse and Zas were to miss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m waiting for the scans. That would be catastrophic if those two are both out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Stormers\u2019 season so far<\/p>\n

The Capetonians finished the campaign in third position but missed out on the all-important top-two spot after succumbing to Cardiff in their final match of the regular season.<\/p>\n

They may also regret a significant dip in form following a stunning start to the campaign which saw them win their first eight games.<\/p>\n

Since then Dobson\u2019s side have lost more than they have won, emerging victorious four times, drawing one and succumbing to five defeats.<\/p>\n

They will particularly rue home reversals against the Sharks and Connacht, while they only picked up four points from their last two contests against Ulster and Cardiff.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Marcell Coetzee stresses value of Springboks duo in Bulls v Munster clash and reveals the \u2018biggest thing\u2019 to master in the play-offs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Stormers are sweating on the outcome of a scan which will determine whether Damian Willemse will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[96447,348,50,5903,75248,101,34134,56,54,16296,55],"class_list":["post-610217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-damian-willemse","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sacha-feinberg-mngomezulu","tag-sports","tag-stormers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-rugby-championship","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}