Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have delayed the call-up of wing Sbu Nkosi and flank Marco van Staden due to injury ahead of the Springboks’ end-of-year tour.

The duo were named in Nienaber’s 35-man Springbok squad for the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour against Ireland (5 November), France (12 November), Italy (19 November) and England (26 November) and were set to depart for Dublin on Sunday evening.

However, Nkosi and Van Staden were forced to remain in South Africa for scans and medical assessments to determine the extent of their respective injuries after the pair sustained rib injuries during their participation in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Sunday.

Erasmus said: “We’ll wait for the outcome of their medical scans and once we know how serious it is we’ll decide if they will join the squad and if so, when.

“Fortunately, we have sufficient cover at loose forward and among the outside backs to allow us to train fully and select a quality team.”

Nienaber revealed that he and assistant coach Felix Jones has been in Dublin since late last week in order to maximised their time with the 11 players who arrived at the team hotel on Sunday.

“We were very fortunate that Felix joined the squad on Sunday as he had a golden opportunity to work with the DHL Stormers and overseas-based players on some detail while the rest of us were travelling,” said Nienaber.

“We allowed the players additional recovery time on Monday morning to ensure that they are fresh when we take the field in our afternoon training session so we can leap straight into the thick of things.

“This is a massive Test for us as Ireland are the No 1 team in the world and we are also facing them in the pool stages of next year’s Rugby World Cup, so every minute of preparation time on and off the field counts.”

Nienaber will announce his matchday squad to face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday.