‘We’ve got four World Cup winners, three of them are now out’ – Bulls’ Kurt-Lee Arendse set to miss Leinster semi

The speedster fractured his cheekbone in his side’s win over Benetton at Loftus Versfeld and he’ll have an operation Sunday morning.

He certainly won't play against the Irish province, his coach Jake White said there's a chance the winger could have a plate inserted in his face similar to that Antoine Dupont had at the World Cup to be fit for Ireland.

"It looks like he's fractured the bone in his cheekbone," White said.

"They can put a plate in to try and get him ready as quickly as they can for the Tests.

"Every kid wants to be in the Tests, and credit to our medical staff for finding the doctor who will do the surgery tomorrow morning so quickly.

"It's a little like the Dupont injury. Dupont got the operation the next day [and was ready to play against the Springboks in the World Cup quarter-final a few weeks later]."

The Bulls are already without Springboks Canan Moodie and Marco van Staden for next week’s game and both are doubts for the series, while Stormers back Damian Willemse has been ruled out of the games against Ireland.

“It’s almost uncanny. We’ve got four World Cup winners, three of them are now out,” he said.

“What are the chances of that? All of a sudden you lose Marco, then you lose Canan and now you lose Kurt-Lee.

"[It] is a massive loss – not just for us but for the Springboks when they get into this [year’s] campaign.”