South Africa not only suffered their third successive defeat on their European tour, but they have more injury concerns as Saracens' Springbok flyhalf Derick Hougaard kicked a late winning drop-goal to give the English club side a 24-23 win at Wembley on Tuesday.
Bok assistant coach Dick Muir, in charge of the Dirt Trackers, confirmed that there are concerns over prop CJ Van Der Linde, who was replaced early in the match with a hamstring injury, and Andries Becker, who damaged his ribs.
The Boks - who have already lost an entire front row on tour, with Gurthrö Steenkamp, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Jannie du Plessis all returning home - can ill afford to lose another prop.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers was toying with the idea of resting star lock Victor Matfield against Italy this coming Saturday, but Bekker's injury may well force a rethink.
The Dirt Trackers have lost both their matches - against the Leicester Tigers and Saracens - and the Test went down to France, with South Africa facing the prospect of losing all their matches on a Northern Hemisphere tour for the first five in more that 50 years.
However, Muir dismissed the notion that the tour is a failure and a disaster.
"A lot of the stuff we did in the first half we didn't do in the second and a few decisions went against us," Muir told a media gathering.
"We put a lot of pressure on in the first half and did the opposite in the second.
"We have brought a whole lot of youngsters over here on tour. Some have shown they are world class players, others have not."
Midweek captain Dewald Potgieter described referee James Jones as "inconsistent" in the set pieces.
"We were so determined to improve on our performance against Leicester. I thought we started off well enough, but after a few blows against us, the front row guys were coming to me saying they were confused by the referee's calls," Potgieter told the media gathering.
"There was a lot of confusion around the hit. He'd sometimes blow us for giving the hit, and then blow us when we relaxed a bit to take the hit.
"We can improve in that area, but it was confusing."
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