Rassie Erasmus has confirmed Salmaan Moerat is the sole injury concern from the Springboks' 66-7 Nations Championship victory over Italy in Turin, with the lock withdrawn from the matchday 23 before kick-off due to back spasms.
Moerat had been managing the issue since Thursday but was initially expected to recover in time, passing the captain's run without incident. The spasms returned during the warm-up, forcing a late reshuffle that saw Lood de Jager come into the starting XV and Franco Mostert added to the bench. It would have been Moerat's first Test cap of 2026, having missed the July Nations Championship matches and the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series through injury.
"Salmaan had a little bit of a back spasm on Thursday, but we thought it would clear up," Erasmus said. "He looked good at the captain's practice, but unfortunately in the warm-up he got more back spasms, so hopefully it's not too serious. He's the only casualty we have from the game."
During the match, Thomas du Toit and Morne van den Berg were briefly withdrawn to have facial gashes treated, while Paul de Villiers and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu completed head injury assessments. Erasmus indicated none of those situations carry ongoing concern.
South Africa led 45-0 at half-time, running in six tries at the Juventus Stadium, before a more competitive Italian second half restricted the Springboks to a further 21 points. Erasmus was relaxed about the drop in intensity after the break, noting the volume of bench changes as a natural factor.
"It's always almost impossible to put 80 minutes 100% together," he said. "We still scored another 20 points in the second, but we don't think that Italy is a bad team. They are a proud team, and they started running the ball from everywhere because they were down 45 points. If we score 66 points in a match, we can't nitpick too much."
The result keeps South Africa top of the Nations Championship's Southern Hemisphere standings on points difference ahead of New Zealand, the only other unbeaten side left in the tournament. The squad departs for Paris on Saturday evening ahead of next Friday's Test against France at the Stade de France, with the Ireland fixture in Dublin to follow before the Finals' Weekend at Twickenham.