Sidelined.

South Africa have been hit with a big fitness blow ahead of their crucial Rugby World Cup showdown with Ireland in Paris on Saturday.

After calling him in late last night to replace injured hooker Malcolm Marx, in what appeared to be a crafty move by the Springboks, Handre Pollard has been officially ruled out of this weekend’s fixture with Ireland in Pool B.

With the likes of Mannie Libbock, Damien Willemse, and Faf de Klerk all struggling from the kicking tee in South Africa’s opening two games, many felt like Pollard would be brought straight back into the match day 23.

But South Africa boss Rasssie Erasmus has confirmed Pollard will not play this weekend unless the Boks find themselves in extreme circumstances with injury.

“He will definitely not be selected for this, apart from if we get two or three injuries,” Erasmus said

“He’s only just joined us today, he’s just played his first minutes in 14, 15 weeks for Leicester on Friday.

“That was basically the initial reason why we couldn’t bring him to the World Cup.

“It’s good to have him here and now he must get up to speed with our intensity of training sessions, get through our training sessions, and slot in nicely.

“We’ve only played two games in this World Cup so I’m pretty sure somewhere we will press on his button and use him but not this weekend.”

There is some good news for Boks fans though, with the coaches confirming that lock Eben Etzebeth should be good to go this weekend.