Delport admitted to hospital
He is stable and once the virus has been confirmed, Paul will get the appropriate treatment, said a statement from the Stormers camp on Thursday.
Meanwhile, an old Stormers favourite, wing Breyton Paulse, has impressed fitness and conditioning coach Greg Hechter no end with his work ethic and enthusiasm.
“Breyton is going really well. He’s put on a little bit of weight, probably 5 kilograms, and he is heavier than before. He is training very hard and he is very good for the youngsters because of his work ethic,” said Hechter.
“The youngsters are looking up to him. Breyton is nice and strong in the gym, but he hasn’t lost any of his agility and I am confident he will have a good Super 14.”
The Stormers will be welcoming back their contracted Springboks on Monday. Hechter said it is hot in Cape Town at the moment, but the guys are putting a lot of hard work in with the season starting so early.
“The guys realise it is a sacrifice of the festive season, but they want to do well. This is a young squad, with 12 guys who haven’t played Super 14 before, but there certainly is a lot of enthusiasm and the senior guys are setting a good example from a training point of view.”
Hechter proclaimed him happy with the preparations thus far. “We are 32 guys in the squad now and I am happy that 95% of them are in really excellent shape. There were four guys I was not happy with, but they have put in the hard work since.
“The strength levels are very satisfactory and the last three weeks we concentrated on power development. We’ve done hill sprint sessions, stair power work on the railway stand at Newlands and also had a couple of sessions in the sand dunes at Mnandi beach.
“Those have gone really well. The guys are enthusiastic and are pushing each other really hard. The focus is now going to be on explosive power and speed work with particularly the backs and loose-forwards doing a lot of speed work, including agility and quickness.
“The tight forwards will be doing a lot of leg power work, a lot of leg driving and scrumming fitness,” concluded Hechter.
