Elrigh Louw has been called into the Springbok squad for the Nations Championship after Riley Norton was ruled out with a Grade 3 hamstring tear sustained in training.
Louw, who last wore the green and gold against Wales in November 2024 before a serious knee injury sidelined him through most of 2025, returns to the wider squad as additional forward cover and joins the camp in Johannesburg on Tuesday. He carries 13 test caps into the reunion.
Norton, the SA under-20 captain, suffered the injury during the second-to-last move of a training session. Rassie Erasmus confirmed the prognosis at eight to ten weeks, ending any prospect of the youngster featuring in the opening weeks of the Nations Championship before returning to the Junior Boks for their playoffs — the plan that had been in place before the setback.
"Riley's injury is a real setback, man. He really fit in well," Erasmus said. "It wasn't a weird incident. He just pulled it while chasing."
The injury compounds an already stretched lock stocks. RG Snyman, Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert are all unavailable, with Mostert expected back within two to three weeks. Lood de Jager is sidelined with illness but could return next week. The combination of absences has forced the Boks to go into Saturday's Nations Championship opener against England at Ellis Park without a specialist lock on the bench.
Erasmus acknowledged that the training environment may have contributed to Norton's injury, noting that the junior players had been matching the pace set by the senior squad across three weeks of pre-tournament preparation.