Once the dust had settled in the wake of a rather large upset at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, the question on everyone’s lips was, “What now for Pat Lambie?” The star Sharks and Springbok flyhalf once again succumbed to injury just about on his return from his last major injury, this time a head knock to go along with a concussion that kept him out for most of the latter half of last year.
A disappointed Robert du Preez was asked this question after the Sharks were downed 35-32 in Port Elizabeth by the Kings, but his answer was an unsure and non-committal one: “Not too sure.”
There will have to be procedure and checks for Lambie, especially with a head knock that was bad enough for him not to be able to pass the on-field “‘ding-dong” test, to determine the damage, but it does not bode well.
Many players do come back from a concussion-like state quickly, failing the on-field test only to be declared fit the next match - that is if no concussion-like symptoms appear. But Lambie is susceptible to concussion symptoms, and even more.
In June last year, while playing for the Boks against Ireland, Lambie was hit by a jumping CJ Stander square in the face and seemingly knocked cold. The flyhalf was clearly concussed and out of action. But as time drew on, and Lambie kept presenting symptoms of concussion through the return-to-play procedure, Sharks doctor Alan Kourie stepped in.
Kourie found that Lambie had a pre-existing condition that is associated with his migraines and that the collision had triggered these headaches, stopping him from passing the return-to-play protocol. Eventually, after almost 10 weeks, Lambie was finally deemed fit to play and cleared of all concussion symptoms, after managing his migraines.
Again, it is too early to tell what this latest head knock will mean for Lambie, especially with his pre-existing migraines, but it cannot be a positive thing. Lambie’s injury luck seems doomed as he has had to overcome a torn bicep, a recent injured back, as well as neck vertebrae, and the concussion from last year.
The worry for the Sharks is fairly obvious, especially with Curwin Bosch unavailable because of his commitments with the SA Under-20 side. However, in Garth April they have a good replacement. The issue is almost larger than that as there was no doubt Bok coach Allister Coetzee was eyeing Lambie as his starting pivot for the clash against the French in June.
However, the biggest worry will be for that of the man himself, who again has the dark cloud of a potentially serious injury hanging over him. Lambie admitted last year, when the concussion symptoms seemed to linger way past their expected stay, that he faced some troubling times mentally, and it would seem that another tough road awaits the darling of Sharks rugby.