Victor Matfield backs Springbok flyhalf depth after Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu injury

The flyhalf was forced off in the Stormers' 44-21 United Rugby Championship quarter-final victory over Cardiff on Saturday.

Reports suggest that Feinberg-Mngomezulu has suffered a high ankle sprain which could keep him on the sidelines for the next three months.

That would rule him out of the rest of the Stormers' season and the early part of the Springboks' Test campaign.

They face England, Scotland and Wales in the Nations Championship before their huge set of matches against the All Blacks in the Greatest Rivalry tour.

Should that prognosis be accurate, the playmaker would at the very least miss a part of that series.

"That's rugby and that's why Rassie works so hard to make sure there's a lot of depth and there are people that can step in," an unconcerned Matfield said on the Rivals podcast alongside All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan.

"It's not bad to have Handre Pollard or Manie Libbok come in for Sacha, that helps quite a bit. Handre is playing fantastic rugby for the Bulls at the moment.

"It's still a year out from the World Cup so I would rather take all the injuries this year than next year."

A surprised Kirwan duly queried Matfield's stance, asking: "You're not worried about the All Blacks, Victor?" But the former South Africa lock doubled down, responding: "Do we need to be?"

The focus then turned to the scrum-half position where Kirwan was left hugely impressed by the performance of Embrose Papier.

After a stunning season for the Bulls, Papier was named in the Springboks' alignment camp recently and, given the injuries in the nine position, could well play a key part for Erasmus' side.

"Embrose Papier has been outstanding the whole year. There was quite a lot of unhappiness with the first two alignment camps when he wasn't there," Matfield said.

"Everyone said: 'How can he not be there?' He's probably the number one scrumhalf in South Africa at the moment.

"If you look at scrumhalf, Grant Williams is out, Jaden Hendrikse is out, Krappies (Morne van den Berg) is out, Cobus Reinach is out, so the top-four are all out.

"But Embrose is playing such great rugby. He played for the Springboks four or five years ago, he went through a dip, but this last season he's been outstanding.

"He's been scoring tries from everywhere, his kicking game is on point and he's always dangerous around the ruck.

"I think he's the second-fastest they've measured this year so he's got a lot of speed."

READ MORE: 'They don't value me here' - Jacques Nienaber casts doubt on Leinster future