Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus believes that second-row star Eben Etzebeth will overcome his concussion issues and be in action for the world champions during their 2025 Test campaign.

Etzebeth last featured for the Sharks in the Investec Champions Cup victory over Exeter Chiefs in December but suffered a concussion in that fixture.

The 33-year-old was then withdrawn from a training session in the build-up to the Sharks’ Champions Cup encounter with Toulouse in Durban after complaining of a headache during scrum practice.

Etzebeth will not be rushed back

The Durban-based outfit have stated that Etzebeth will not be rushed back and will only return once concussion specialists are ‘fully satisfied’ that he is ready to return to action.

The Springboks‘ most capped international believes that he could well be back playing sooner rather than later, telling Rapport: “If everything goes well, I will be playing again within the next few weeks.”

And Erasmus is confident the double Rugby World Cup winner will be a vital cog in the Springboks machine in 2025, although he stressed that it’s important not to rush the player back into action.

“I actually drove through to Stellenbosch the other day to meet with Dr Pierre Viviers, the concussion guru, to just get a proper catchup so I could also understand the concussion setup again,” he told reporters at a press conference in Cape Town on Wednesday.

“When a guy is totally concussion-free, he starts from a clean sheet again… and that’s what we always want.

“So, if a guy gets a normal concussion in a game and he fails the HIA protocols, then we will never bring a guy back too early.

Crucial for Etzebeth to be ‘concussion-free’

“Eben must just get to that stage now where they say he is concussion-free.”

Etzebeth was seen at a Sharks training session in Durban on Tuesday, which is another indication that he could return to action soon.

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“He doesn’t have any symptoms, he went through all the processes… and, according to what I’ve heard, he will be one of the players that will be available [this year],” added Erasmus.

“He is not yet ready to play but I think he’s getting very close to getting ready to play. He just wants that clean sheet of being concussion-free. Then it’s back to normal again.

“Obviously, if a guy gets one concussion after the other, then there are some implications there… I don’t want to give any data on Eben, but we see him playing for us this year.”