Wallaby playmaker in injury scare
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:09
Injury worry: Matt Giteau. (c) Getty
The Wallabies are confident that playmaker Matt Giteau will be cleared for their Tri-Nations showdown with the Springboks on Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Australia's medical staff confirmed that the star inside back injured his ankle at a training session at the team's Durban base on Wednesday.
Giteau's ankle was iced after the incident, which occurred at the Australian side's session at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Wallaby coach Robbie Deans was unconcerned about the injury.
"Gits rolled his ankle," he told AAP.
"Since then he's coped with lunch pretty well."
Australia has had little luck with injuries this season and still have a host of big names, including James Horwill, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Digby Ioane and Wycliff Palu unavailable.
Last Saturday, would-be Test debutant Scott Higginbotham was ruled out during the Wallabies' warm-up at Loftus Versfeld with a back injury, which also has him sidelined this weekend.
Australia have made three changes to their starting line-up after the heartbreaking 31-44 loss, dropping forwards Saia Faingaa, Dean Mumm and Richard Brown to the bench and promoting Stephen Moore, Mark Chisholm and Ben McCalman.
Hooker Moore will join wing Drew Mitchell in playing his 50th Test and Mitchell said the match would be one of the most important of his career.
"Of the 49 I've played so far, each have been important in their own right," he said.
"This weekend, probably off the back of last weekend's performance, has somewhat more significance in its own right because I guess it's been talked about a lot, the fact we haven't won in The Highveld for so long [47 years] and we were pretty close last weekend.
"The boys have this self-belief and a collective belief that we are capable of doing it."
Australia travel from its training base near Durban to Bloemfontein on Thursday.