Ethan Hooker has a tentative return date set for South Africa's opening Test against New Zealand in The Greatest Rivalry series, roughly 10 weeks after surgery to repair the dislocated shoulder he suffered when Ospreys wing Luke Morgan dived on him following his try in their URC clash in April.
The 23-year-old will miss the full July window — Tests against England, Scotland and Wales plus the Barbarians warm-up — but the timeline gives him a realistic chance of featuring when the All Blacks series kicks off.
Sharks CEO JP Pietersen has been vocal about the incident since it occurred. "Ethan's injury was a massive blow for us. After scoring a try, the rules say you are not supposed to dive on a player and rules are there to protect players and sadly that did not happen," Pietersen said. "He is a massive presence for us and to lose him after the first half was very disappointing and frustrating."
The Sharks lodged an official request for the URC to investigate, but Morgan was not cited after the incident was deemed not to have met the red card threshold. Despite the try being reviewed by match officials at the time, no action was taken.
Former Test referee Nigel Owens, writing in his WalesOnline column, agreed a red card was not warranted but was clear that Morgan's actions were both dangerous and illegal. "What is illegal is needlessly coming down on a player after they've already scored a try. That becomes foul play," Owens wrote. "At the very least it should have been a penalty on halfway, although I think in this case there's an argument to say it should have been a penalty and a yellow card. I think you've got to referee the action rather than the outcome."