An emotional Juan Smith yesterday bowed to the inevitable and withdrew himself from the Springbok Rugby World Cup squad

An emotional Juan Smith yesterday bowed to the inevitable and withdrew himself from the Springbok Rugby World Cup squad because of ongoing compications with his achilles tendon injury.

The 30-year-old flanker has for sometime been behind schedule in his recovery from the injury sustained in Super Rugby in March, and he has been training with the Boks “in some pain”, he said, before yesterday admitting that he was “lying” to himself about making the World Cup.

Smith had been given the deadline of playing 20 minutes off the bench against the Wallabies last week, then it was pushed back to this week’s match agaisnt the All Blacks, only for him to be sent home to the Cheetahs to see if he could play against the Pumas on Friday in the Currie Cup, but Smith has realised that he is not fit and is fooling himself.

“I won’t be able to give everything and realise I should put my team, team-mates and the Bok fans first. I must stop lying to myself – which is what I’ve been doing these last three weeks I have been back with the Boks – and accept that I’m not ready,” said Smith.

“I really cannot describe how immensely disappointed I am,” he said.

The silver lining to Smith’s removal from the equation is that it opens the door for ball-stealing dynamo Heinrich Brussow to give the Boks a new dimension on the openside flank, with Schalk Burger moving to blindside flank and Pierre Spies making up the loose trip at No 8.