Springbok, Stormers star shares emotional journey to cope with injury

Last year, Salmaan Moerat enjoyed an unforgettable season as he starred for the Stormers, while going on to make his Springbok debut against Wales in July. The 25-year-old would also feature off the bench against New Zealand later in the year before earning a first start against Italy in November.

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However, the powerful lock then endured a desperately unfortunate end to the year when he suffered a serious knee injury in December, which ruled him out of the entire United Rugby Championship, and placed his World Cup prospects in doubt.

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As he has undertaken a long road to recovery, Moerat – who is a devout Muslim – has now spoken of finding the ‘blessing’ in his injury after being able to take a spiritual journey to the Saudi Arabian’s cities of Mecca and Medina during the current holy month of Ramadan.

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Moerat, who has just completed his “Umrah” – a non-obligatory pilgrimage – along with his wife Haanim, has shared a series of posts to social media where he has explained just how emotional and healing the journey has been.

“Alhumdullilha (Praise be to God) for everything. These past couple of days have been nothing short of amazing and with each day that passes, I feel both grateful and sad. Grateful we are here, sad that it has to end,” he posted.

“When the injury happened I was really torn between acceptance and mourning. I think for the most part I was trying to convince myself I was ok. But then, when booking and confirming our Umrah, I came to the realisation that this injury was a dua answered: it has always been a longing of mine to complete an umrah during the Holy Month of Ramadan, and inshallah that will shortly become a reality – all because of this injury.

“Sometimes when ‘bad’ things happen, we think Allah is unhappy with us. But when we look deep within, we will find that there are no “bad” things that happen – only events that will bring us closer to Him. Once we become receptive to this, every event that occurs will be a means of gaining closeness to him and increasing us in our faith. (Ameen).

“Allah answers your duahs. They just might not be what you pictured. But Alhumdullilha, for he is the best of planners.”

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A post shared by Salmaan Moerat (@salmaanmoerat)

Moerat will hope to return to action later this year

An anterior cruciate ligament injury can take anything between six and nine months to recover from, placing Moerat in a race against time to be considered for the World Cup.

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SPRINGBOKS’ 2023 FIXTURES:

Rugby Championship:
Saturday, 8 July – Springboks vs Australia (Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria)
Saturday, 15 July – Springboks vs New Zealand (Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland)
Saturday, 29 July – Springboks vs Argentina (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)

RWC warm-up fixtures:
Saturday, 5 August – Springboks v Argentina (Buenos Aires)
Saturday, 19 August – Springboks vs Wales (Principality Stadium, Cardiff)
Friday, 25 August – Springboks vs New Zealand (Twickenham, London)

RWC FIXTURES:

Sunday, 10 September – Boks v Scotland (Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
Sunday, 17 September – Boks v Romania (Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)
Saturday, 23 September – Boks v Ireland (Stade de France, Paris)
Sunday, 1 October – Boks v Tonga (Stade Velodrome, Marseille)

Weekend of 14/15 October – Quarter-finals
Weekend of 21/22 October – Semi-finals
Saturday, 28 October – Final

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