Elton Jantjies sidelined from Springbok tour, team dietician Simjee returns

Elton Jantjies will not be part of the Springbok squad that will travel to Europe for four Tests in November, casting further doubts over his international future. 

READ | Squads for Boks' UK tour to be named next week, 26 players to gather for Stellenbosch training camp

The 32-year-old has not played for his country since 27 August against the Wallabies and then, the following month, he was sent home from Argentina after explosive reports alleged he had an affair with Bok team dietician Zeenat Simjee and stayed in a Mbombela guest lodge without paying his bill upon leaving earlier in the Rugby Championship. 

Jantjies and Simjee were both sent home to deal with the personal matter, though they were not considered to have breached any team protocol. 

Director of rugby Rassie Erasmus on Tuesday, however, confirmed that Jantjies would not be considered for the November Tests against Ireland, France, Italy and England. 

Simjee would be back with the team. 

"There was that personal reporting on him while we were on tour just before a really important Test match, and we mutually agreed with Elton that we would allow him to go back home and handle these personal matters," said Erasmus. 

"We didn't know what was true and what was not true.

"Since that, he hasn't played any rugby, so for us to be able to select him currently ... we just haven't seen him play.

"What we would love to do is just compare him to the other flyhalves on pure form, but unfortunately we couldn't do that on Elton because he hasn't played since."

While this latest development will only raise further questions over whether Jantjies has played his final Test for the Boks, Erasmus insisted the door was not closed on the 2019 World Cup winner while he also provided some