'I'll miss the long voice notes': Jaden Hendrikse on rugby without his dad

When it comes to sifting through the winners and losers in the aftermath of the Springboks' Rugby World Cup squad announcement, scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse has all but won the lotto. 

This time last year, the Sharks halfback was on the verge of replacing Faf de Klerk as the country's starting scrumhalf.

A year later he has yet to play for the Boks this season, having last played rugby on April Fool's Day, when he dislocated his shoulder against Munster. 

Further exacerbating the situation is the fact that the youngster suffered a family bereavement in the form of his father Brian's death not long before the international season began, which disrupted the Bok coaching team's carefully laid plans to the point where he hadn't played by the time they had announced the World Cup squad. 

With head coach Jacques Nienaber having made it clear that they were loath to take players to France who hadn't played in 12 weeks, most felt a player who hadn't played in over four months and was grieving the loss of the biggest influence in his life had run out of runway. 

Yet when the list of players to defend the Webb Ellis Cup was read out on Tuesday, Hendrikse's name was miraculously there.

Of course, Nienaber deciding to go with four of the five scrumhalves he had in his preparation squad had something to do with it, but it's not like Hendrikse had done anything to deserve not being selected.

READ | Hooper, Cooper axed from Wallabies World Cup squad, Skelton named captain 

Speaking to him on Tuesday, Hendrikse said stressing about running out of time to make the team was the least of his worries. 

"That wasn't the main thing in my mind," he explained. "The main thing in my mind was what happened with my family, so for me everything was trying to