Scotland 3, South Africa 27: Callam will see surgeon after Springbok battering

The Scotland No 8 Dave Callam will see a facial surgeon today over the injury that forced him to retire from Saturday's World Cup warm-up defeat by South Africa. Callam took a blow to the area above his right eye – thought to have occurred in an accidental clash of heads – and subsequently suffered blurring to his vision.

Scotland's team doctor, James Robson, said yesterday: "He has been seen by an ophthalmologist in Edinburgh today and we will seek a further specialist opinion tomorrow."

The prop Gavin Kerr, with a recurrence of a toe injury, and flanker Kelly Brown, with an injured hand, are likely to miss training in the early part of this week. Kerr is now wearing an immobilising boot and both players will be further assessed today.

Robson added that a number of other Scotland players had "bumps and bruises" to be expected after a game of Saturday's intensity, but that none of their injuries were causing concern.

Chris Paterson gave Scotland an early lead but the Springboks hit back with three tries in quick succession in the middle of the first half effectively to end the match as a contest. Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie and Fourie du Preez were the men on the scoresheet as Jake White's side underlined their World Cup credentials.

Despite the defeat at the hands of England's Pool A rivals, the Scotland scrum-half Blair was adamant that the game was the perfect way for Scotland to complete their preparations.

The 26-year-old said: "This gets us battle-hardened. That is as physical a game as we've played in and I include New Zealand in that, so it was an invaluable workout. With Portugal in two weeks' time we want to get on a roll. I'm sure some of the other guys will get some game time but it's important to put in good, convincing performances ahead of the New Zealand and Italy games."