Gerald Coetzee in doubt for the second Test

Gerald Coetzee is in doubt for the second Test against Sri Lanka at St George's Park, which starts on Thursday, with a groin problem.

Coetzee took 2/18 and 2/67 in the first Test at Kingsmead, which South Africa won by 233 runs on Saturday.

"We chatted at lunch, and he said he felt his groin a little bit," Shukri Conrad, South Africa's coach, told a press conference. "Sizwe [Hadebe, the team's physiotherapist] treated him and strapped it. We said go out and have a bowl, and let's see how it reacts. He will have a scan tomorrow, and then we'll know more."

South Africa's usually deep stocks of available fast bowlers are at a rare low. Lungi Ngidi and Nandre Burger are out with groin and lumbar injuries, and Anrich Nortje has limited himself to T20Is.

The squad for the Lankan series includes medium pacer Dane Paterson and left-arm spinning allrounder Senuran Muthusamy, but Conrad bought himself some insurance before the rubber by naming only 14 players and leaving the 15th place open to contenders from South Africa's domestic competition.

That was a clever move. But it won't help Conrad that, should he need to draw from that well, the leading wicket-takers going into the current round of matches were Kyle Simmonds, Tsepo Ndwandwa and Shaun von Berg – all of them spinners.

The time may be right for the return, if required, of Lutho Sipamla, who played the last of his three Tests against New Zealand in Christchurch in February and March 2022. Sipamla, who took 11 wickets at an average of 22.27 in those matches, has claimed 11 at 19.90 in two first-class matches this season.