'I'm not worried about my knee': Kolisi on state of readiness

Apart from lacking a coat of lotion and a fresh scar running down his left shin, there was little wrong with the legs Springbok captain Siya Kolisi presented at his final media briefing before the team departed for the final phase of its Rugby World Cup defence on Saturday.

Most importantly, said legs also had no strapping on a knee that has been the topic of discussion for months now.

Even more encouraging was the Bok skipper's declaration that he was now at a stage where he was no longer even thinking about the injury, which has kept him out of the initial preparations and build-up of the world champions' Rugby World Cup defence thus far, when he went into contact.

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Kolisi, who was declared as being fit enough to play in the first of the Boks' World Cup warm-up games - against Wales on August 19 - when he was announced as captain of the 33-man squad on Tuesday, has been exposed to rigorous training in recent weeks.

First, he joined the Sharks' pre-season in the week when the Boks were in Buenos Aires for their first World Cup warm-up match against Argentina, then he participated fully in what he described as the Boks' charged up final training sessions before Saturday's departure.

Asked if he was physically where he wanted to be ahead of the Welsh friendly, Kolisi sounded positive.

"You can only know that when you get on the field," he explained.

"Our training sessions help a lot because they're like rugby club rugby games. The most important thing for me is I'm not thinking about the knee at the moment. The fitness will come. We had a session on Thursday where it got heated a little bit, but in a good way, and I forgot about my knee and