Elrigh Louw has been called into the Springbok squad for the Nations Championship as forward cover, the day after the Boks confirmed that SA under-20 captain Riley Norton had suffered a Grade 3 hamstring injury during a training session with the national side.
Louw, whose last Test appearance was against Wales in November 2024, missed most of the 2025 season with a serious knee injury but returned strongly for the Bulls this year, earning a place in the Springbok alignment camps. He joins the squad in Johannesburg on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's Nations Championship opener against England at Ellis Park.
Norton had been earmarked to make his senior Springbok debut during the first three weeks of the Nations Championship before returning to the Junior Boks for their playoffs. The injury occurred during the second-to-last move of a training session. Rassie Erasmus estimates the recovery at eight to ten weeks.
"Riley's injury is a real setback, man. He really fit in well," Erasmus said on Monday. "He just pulled his hamstring while chasing. It wasn't a weird incident. He just pulled it."
The lock stocks are already badly depleted, with RG Snyman and Jean Kleyn both injured, Franco Mostert sidelined by an ankle injury — though expected back within two to three weeks — and Lood de Jager currently unavailable through illness. As a result, the Boks will face England without a specialist lock on the bench.
Erasmus acknowledged that the training environment may have contributed to Norton's injury, noting that the intensity the senior players had maintained over three weeks was demanding for the younger men to sustain. "I wouldn't say it was our fault, but maybe for the younger guys it's about keeping up with that intensity all the time," he said.