Sharks' injuries a worry

There wasn't much good news for Sharks coach John Plumtree yesterday after the full medical examinations of loose forward Keegan Daniel and centre Tim Whitehead.

As suspected, Daniel had a grade-2 tear to his medial cruciate ligament and Whitehead had fractured his arm during Friday's 71-8 Super 15 warm-up victory against the Leopards in Pietermaritzburg.

Daniel's injury seems the more serious and he could be out for up to eight weeks; Whitehead is expected back in as little as six weeks.

Knee ligament injuries are notoriously fickle - just ask Schalk Burger, who sustained a similar injury in the opening round of last year's season and hasn't played since - so Daniel's progress will be a continuing drama until he actually plays again.

At least the Sharks management could confirm that hooker Bismarck du Plessis is on track for the Australasian tour, starting on April 21, after months of rehabilitation for torn knee ligaments.

Ryan Kankowski also returned to training yesterday - a timeous arrival from club commitments in Japan in light of Daniel's woes - and will be assessed this week before a decision is made on including him against the Pumas.

For now, the Sharks are hoping for a sterner physical test in their last warm-up fixture against the Pumas on Saturday after being left slightly underwhelmed by the Leopards.

"We go into this week's game praying that there are no more injuries," the Sharks' backline coach, Hugh Reece-Edwards, said.

"We'll know where we stand after this week's warm-up game because it should be a nice physical match compared to last week's.

"Unfortunately, the hit-out wasn't as physical as we had hoped for. I don't think we played the Leopards' top team because they were also experimenting quite a bit.

"But I was really happy from the point of view of excitement, good ball handling and some good play. We'd be happy with those aspects against any side, but it needed to be a little bit harder.

"We're hoping to get that this weekend playing against the Pumas.

"It's all about getting our structures right before going into the Super rugby tournament. The fact that we play the Cheetahs in the first game means we have to be spot on."