South Africa lose captain Jean de Villiers for Wales Tests

South Africa have suffered a huge blow with the news that Jean de Villiers is out of the June Tests against Wales and Scotland.

The Springboks captain picked up a knee injury playing for the Stormers has been ruled out for up to eight weeks.

De Villiers will miss the two clashes with Wales on June 14 and 21 and the one against Scotland on June 28.

“Losing our captain is a massive setback, Jean has been superb as our leader on and off the field,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“He was in excellent form as well. He is a wonderful ambassador for South Africa and is respected across the world as a leader – we will certainly miss him next month.

“His injury is the latest in a string of setbacks we’ve experienced, and with [centre] Jaque Fourie also ruled out it means we’ll play with a new captain and a new midfield combination next month.

“Luckily we have good depth in the squad at centre, but replacing your captain is always difficult. We have a number of good leaders in the squad, but I don’t want to rush a decision on the captaincy as we still have to finalise the squad for June.”