The “stress reaction” that South Africa’s fast bowler Anrich Nortje had will prevent him from playing for an indeterminate amount of time. Nortje did not travel to MLC 2025, where he was scheduled to play for the Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR), and he was not included in South Africa’s T20I squad for a tri-series in Zimbabwe next month. This season, Nortje has only participated in two games for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL.
Shukri Conrad, the coach of South Africa, stated that Nortje’s injury will be evaluated and that CSA does not currently know how long he will be sidelined.
The injury is the most recent in a string of setbacks for Nortje, who last participated in international cricket at the T20 World Cup in 2024 and is no longer under CSA’s core contract. Because he chose not to sign the central contract and instead focused on T20s, he was subsequently not taken into consideration for the Test team. However, a back injury kept him out of the 2025 Champions Trophy, and a fractured toe then prevented him from playing in the home Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan. After that, he took a plane to India to play for KKR in the IPL, although he only made two appearances.
It’s unclear which formats Nortje will participate in once he’s healthy again.
“We need to find out how long he will be out and how serious his condition is. “I feel so sorry for him,” Conrad remarked. “He is a fast bowling superstar, so it must be difficult to cope with setback after setback. We’ll wait and see if it’s serious.
“We are naturally concerned. This is the second or third stress reaction that Anrich’s back has experienced. We are absolutely not drawing a line with this name, and it is too early to make a diagnosis. We will give him every opportunity to return; he is 31 years old. The optimum course of action will need to be determined by the medical team.
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