Carter Gordon faces scan after lower-leg injury in Wallabies' 28-all draw with Argentina

Carter Gordon is facing a scan on his lower leg after being substituted late in the Wallabies’ 28-all draw with Los Pumas in Mendoza on Saturday, with coach Les Kiss confirming the fly-half will be assessed in the hours following the match.

Gordon, who has now earned 13 Test caps, had an unusual evening off the bench. He entered the field during the first half to cover while winger Filipo Daugunu underwent a head injury assessment, returned to the bench, and then came on for a second time in the 55th minute, replacing Ben Donaldson at fly-half. He lasted just 14 minutes before being withdrawn, with scrum-half Ryan Lonergan finishing the match in the No. 10 role.

“We’re just going to get that checked out properly with some scans hopefully over the next few hours,” Kiss told reporters after the game. “Hopefully we’ve got some information in the morning.”

Whether Gordon will be fit to face the Springboks on September 27 at Optus Stadium in Perth remains unclear. Australia are then scheduled to play the All Blacks in two Bledisloe Cup Tests, meaning the coming weeks carry significant weight in the Wallabies’ calendar.

Despite the uncertainty over Gordon, Kiss drew encouragement from a five-game unbeaten run that includes wins over Italy, Japan twice, and Argentina once, before Saturday’s stalemate. The draw in Mendoza extended that sequence without a defeat.

“We feel that some of the decisions we’ve made over this four or five weeks, we got a lot of good information from it,” Kiss said. “They knew that we were going to challenge them in many different ways, and I think we’ve done that for the group. We’ll get a lot of pay from that down the road.”

Kiss was candid about the scale of the challenge ahead, with South Africa currently ranked number one in the world. “We’re going to have to make sure we get some things better to be able to front up against the Springboks,” he said. “It will be tough, but I’m pretty sure the boys will be up for the fight.”

South Africa are currently 2-1 in their ongoing series against New Zealand and travel to Baltimore next for the fourth and final match of that fixture, before heading to Perth to face Australia.