John Dobson has declared a hooker crisis at the Stormers after all three of their specialist No.2s were lost during Saturday's 52-40 URC win over Scarlets at DHL Stadium.
Andre-Hugo Venter went off in the 35th minute with what Dobson described as a relatively serious elbow injury, before Lukhanyo Vokozela failed his HIA in the second half. Deon Fourie, who serves as the emergency hooker contingency, then departed with a hamstring injury — leaving the Stormers without a designated hooker for the closing stages.
"The match itself was absolutely bizarre," Dobson said. "I was really pleased that we have a good contingency sheet if you lose both hookers, but I never thought we'd be losing three. To lose all three hookers took away our set-piece, but credit to the team for the way they closed that game out."
Captain Paul de Villiers, who was required to take over lineout throwing duties, acknowledged the difficulty of losing the set-piece as a foundation. "It was crazy; normally you can either scrum or opt for the line-out, but today both options were risky."
Vokozela still needs to clear a second concussion assessment before being considered for next week's home clash against Ulster. Cobus Reinach and Seabelo Sentala both passed their HIAs and are expected to be available. Hacjivah Dayimani is confirmed out for the Ulster match, while JJ Kotze remains suspended.
The casualty list at loose forward compounds the problem, with Ruan Ackermann, Ben-Jason Dixon, Marcel Theunissen and now Fourie all unavailable. Dobson indicated Louw Nel and Wandi Mlaba provide sufficient cover in the back row, but warned the club may need to bring in a hooker from outside the squad at short notice.
Dobson also flagged that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is likely to be rested for the Ulster fixture, with several players having accumulated significant minutes across recent weeks.