Roux reacted strongly to suggestions there was skullduggery afoot in the decision to leave 21 Springboks in South Africa © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Peter De Villiers

Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: South Africa

The chief executive of the South Africa Rugby Union (SARU) has rubbished suggestions that the 21 injured players omitted from the Tri-Nations squad for the away legs of the tournament are secretly training back in South Africa.

Following on from Peter de Villiers' denial on Wednesday that the absentees are back in Rustenburg in a "secret training camp", SARU CEO Jurie Roux has come out all guns blazing on the controversial matter. The Springboks declared 21 players unfit to travel on the Australiasian tour - a decision which riled the Australian Rugby Union. And following newspaper reports suggesting the injured internationals were in training, Roux was unequivocal on his take on the matter.

"I am not denying they are in Rustenburg, I am denying there is a secret training camp," Roux said. "I have got my players in a single high-performance entity being rehabilitated. That is it, but you (New Zealand media) want me to say I'm running a separate Springbok team and have sent a B team here.

"Well, I would like to cut the cast off Schalk Burger's finger, I would like Andries Bekker to not need an operation, I would like all of them to be uninjured, but they are injured and being rehabilitated, so what do you want me to do? I am not a miracle worker."

Roux - answering questions from local journalists in Wellington - further re-iterated that his priority was his players, saying: "It is a unique thing to me that people are worried about this at all... my biggest asset is my players. I need to do something to get them all ready for the World Cup and that means the best medical attention in the best environment for the injured.

"This is a simple thing and if I was not doing it, I would need to come to New Zealand to look for a job, which is the last thing I want to do."