​Butch James is a serious doubt for the Springboks' final game of the Tri-Nations after picking up an injury.

The Bath Rugby fly-half did not train with South Africa this morning and the nature of his injury is set to be made public later following further scans.

South African sources told the Chronicle that Jannie du Plessis and Flip van der Merwe also missed today's session with niggles, but that James is the biggest concern for head coach Peter de Villiers.

The news will also be of concern to Bath head coach Steve Meehan. Bath's season begins on Sunday.

James, who has had problems during his career with knee and, to a lesser extent, shoulder injuries, came off the bench for the final 15 minutes in Saturday’s win over Australia.

De Villiers has called up Dewald Potgieter, Gio Aplon and Wynand Olivier to the Bok camp as insurance.