Frans Steyn's World Cup dream hanging by a thread after bad news about knee injury

Frans Steyn's quest to feature in a fourth World Cup is hanging by a proverbial thread. 

Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie, on Thursday, revealed that the knee injury he sustained in the 32-7 Currie Cup victory over the Bulls a fortnight ago would keep him out for a substantial period of time. 

"He'll be out for about two to three months," the central franchise's mentor said.

"Frans had a scope on his knee and the prognosis was worse than the doctor initially thought. It will be a substantial period on the sidelines. Our medical team believes it will be for most of the Currie Cup anyway." 

The 35-year-old's biggest challenge, however, might not be his recovery but rather the fact that his slated return allows essentially no window for crucial game time, particularly if time on the park is still needed for the national coaching staff to be convinced of his suitability for the showpiece in France, which starts in September.

The Currie Cup concludes at the end of June.

It's also a blow mentally for the wily Steyn, who'd been working hard on his conditioning at the start of the year and started the domestic tournament in excellent form. 

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"It's a bit of a blow to his hopes, he really wanted to go for the World Cup,"  said Fourie.

"He's worked really hard since the start of the year after his previous injury, [and] dropped quite a bit of weight. It's a big setback for him, hopefully he'll recover soon and maybe there's still a bit of a door open for him, but we don't have contact with the Bok coaches currently.

"We'll see how it goes, but he needs to recover and get on the field again first."

The Cheetahs' fixture list, especially in the