South Africa captain Siya Kolisi set to return for clash against Argentina

South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has revealed that skipper Siya Kolisi is a likely starter in their upcoming game against Argentina in Pretoria on 17th August.

Kolisi has been sidelined since May when he suffered a knee injury while playing for his Super Rugby club Stormers and was forced to miss the recently concluded Rugby Championship tournament that the Springboks went on to win.

Erasmus said the return of the 28-year-old need to be managed properly especially with the World Cup around the corner.

“He is a guy we desperately want to be involved on Saturday, and we will involve him, but it will be limited minutes,” said Erasmus.

“We won’t rush him – we need to carefully manage his return.”

Erasmus' men had a terrific start to 2019 with a Rugby Championship title and the South African boss stressed on the importance of heading into the showpiece event in Japan with momentum.

“This is a very important week for us and I’m really excited about what we plan to do,” he added.

“We’re determined to build on the momentum we’ve produced over the past few weekends and we’re really looking forward to ticking a few more boxes before we leave for Japan.

“This is the last 80 minutes we will have before reaching Japan and then we have only one match there before playing New Zealand so this match is very important to the campaign.

“We don’t know what team Argentina will pick but you can be sure they’ll be going all out to end their pre-Rugby World Cup campaign with a morale-boosting win.”

Following the game against Argentina, South Africa will also face Japan in Kumagaya on 6th September before they kick-start their World Cup campaign on 21st September against New Zealand in Yokohama.