Hooker Malcolm Marx has been ruled out of the rest of South Africa’s 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign.

Marx has been sidelined by a knee injury.

“First and foremost, we are extremely disappointed for Malcolm, and we wish him all the best in his recovery,” said Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber.

“He’s been working very hard to be in the best form possible for the tournament, and it’s tragic that his campaign has ended this way. As a team we will remain in contact with him, as we do with all injured players such as Lukhanyo Am, Handre Pollard and Lood de Jager, and support him as much as we can through the recovery process.

“We have enough cover at hooker with Bongi Mbonambi and Deon Fourie in the squad, while Marco van Staden has also been training there and has been named on all our team sheets so far as a hooker option.

“We’ll assess our needs for the rest of the tournament and confirm who we are calling up as an additional player later this week.”

South Africa are the defending Rugby World Cup champions. They beat Scotland last week and will play Romania on Sunday.