Read more
While some worried his career would be over, the flyhalf had a successful operation on his knee and could return to the game before the end of the season.
Bulls flyhalf Johan Goosen suffered a serious injury against Cardiff that looked like it might end his career. Picture: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images
Amid an otherwise sombre press conference where talk hovered around the passing of Cornal Hendricks, Bulls director of rugby Jake White reported good news in that flyhalf Johan Goosen’s latest injury wouldn’t end his career.
The 32-year-old, who is the Bulls’ first-choice number 10, had to be carried off the field during the Bulls’ 45–21 win against Cardiff at Loftus last week for what looked to be another serious knee injury.
Goosen is very injury-prone and had already missed a few months of the season following knee surgery done at the beginning of the year. At his age, some thought this latest setback would end his career.
However, the flyhalf already had an operation since last weekend, and the prognosis afterwards was good.
ALSO READ: Keagan Johannes excited for Bulls flyhalf opportunity
‘Isn’t as bad as we initially thought’
“He had a procedure with [doctors] Daan du Plessis and Wim [Hiddema]. They are great knee surgeons as you know, and it went well,” White said.
There’s no timeframe but they are confident that if everything goes well we can have him back before the end of the season, which is great, considering when that happened everyone thought that it might be career-ending.”
“I don’t want to say to you he’ll be available next week or the following week but it isn’t as bad as we initially thought when he was carried off.”
The coach said Goosen probably should not have put himself in harm’s way trying to win a turnover, and he would show the player video footage of the incident to tell him to be careful next time.
But he also drew on the career of Butch James, who although he was also beset with injuries and needed multiple operations on both knees and one on his shoulder, still had a successful international career and won the 2007 World Cup with the Springboks.
Goosen could return for play-offs but needs time
The Bulls will play their last regular-season United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Dragons on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) before a week’s break. Then they head into the URC play-offs at the end of the month.
The Bulls have secured a finish in the top three already, meaning Goosen has time to recover before the home quarter-final and possibly semi-final, should they end second and progress to that stage. But White knows most injured players do not return to form in their first game back.
Download our app
