Initially, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was trying to fill the gaping void left by Jaque Fourie at outside centre, but now his midfield problems have gone septic following a hospital ward's worth of injuries. When Meyer took over the Bok job in 2012, Fourie's unavailability at the time - due to his Japanese club commitments - sparked a protracted search for a capable replacement.Fourie might be back - after returning from retirement - but he is one of five centres out of a total of seven in the current 49-man Bok squad who are either injured or desperately need conditioning.And after Fourie missed part of the Japan Top League action with injury, Bok team doctor Craig Roberts said: "We have Jaque Fourie on our conditioning list because he hasn't played for a while. He is not going to be considered for the first couple of games unless he shows that he is where we want him from a conditioning perspective."It means that going into the season-opener against the World XV in two weeks and possibly against the Wallabies in Brisbane a week later, Meyer's options are the fit and in-form Damian de Allende and the chunky off-form JP Pietersen for midfield. At a push, captain Jean de Villiers, who ran in a Bok training jersey for the first time in seven months on Monday, could be available.Lionel Mapoe, Jan Serfontein and Frans Steyn are all out of action, the latter for two months."The difficulty," said Meyer, "is that there are probably three guys that you can pick. Damian is probably the last man standing but he's been in awesome form."Between the England incoming tour of 2012 and the end-of-year tour of Europe last year, Meyer used no fewer than eight players at outside centre: De Villiers, Jaco Taute, Juan de Jongh, JJ Engelbrecht, De Allende, Pietersen, Serfontein and Fourie.Meyer also started nine different centre combinations in that time.The coach was at times unlucky with injuries.But with just over two months left before the World Cup begins in September, the Boks are still without a settled midfield pairing and for that Meyer must accept some blame.His grudge at having missed out to Peter de Villiers on a chance to coach a great Bok side at its peak, after Jake White, manifests itself in his insistence on reuniting the De Villiers and Fourie midfield partnership...