The Stormers, already reeling from the loss of their star Springbok, Schalk Burger, are facing a flyhalf crisis as they wait on Monday to discover whether All Black Tony Brown will have a role to play for the rest of the Super 14.
The grim prognosis on Saturday night that Burger would be out for six weeks put a damper on any celebration at Newlands after the Stormers had beaten the Highlanders in a match where Brown only lasted 20 minutes before leaving the field with a rib injury.
The New Zealander will have a scan today to determine the severity of the injury and if he is ruled out with three matches to play, coach Rassie Erasmus has a big call to make on whether to call Western Province's Vodacom Cup flyhalf, Ismaeel Dollie, into the squad.
If Dollie is drafted into the Stormers team, the unbeaten Western Province side, who host Free State in the semifinal at Newlands in the curtain-raiser to the Stormers-Brumbies game this Saturday, will lose their playmaker in a competition which has raised the stakes considerably with R1-million in prize-money up for grabs to the eventual winner.
If Brown can play no role for the Stormers for the rest of the Super 14, Dollie is the only specialised flyhalf Erasmus has available who can slot in as back-up to Peter Grant.
The Stormers, sixth on the log with 31 points, have an excellent chance of securing Newlands as the venue for one of the semifinals with just five points separating them from the second-placed Waratahs.
However, the Sydney side still have to tour South Africa and play the Stormers at Newlands in a fortnight, as well as the Bulls at Loftus.
And the third-placed Sharks, who have just one point more than the Stormers, are sinking fast ahead of their final tour match this weekend against the mighty Crusaders in Christchurch.
Two successive defeats without bonus points for the Sharks, against the Brumbies last weekend and the Waratahs on Saturday, has left the Durban side with little margin for error, and if they are beaten again this weekend, they will almost certainly drop out of contention for a semifinal place.
Only the six-times champion Crusaders, with 43 points, are looking safe for the semifinals and every other side will have to chase bonus points in the remaining three rounds to determine where they finish on the log and who will have to travel for the play-offs.
Erasmus has already indicated that rookie flank Pieter Myburgh will be drafted back into the Stormers squad from the Vodacom Cup team as a squad replacement for the injured Burger.
But for the Brumbies game it looks almost certain that Luke Watson will switch from No 8 to flank fetcher and that Robbie Diack will start at No 8.
The Stormers, riding the wave of seven successive victories, are suddenly looking threadbare due to injuries that have robbed them of Springbok wing Tonderai Chavhanga, loosehead prop JD Moller and now Burger and, potentially, Brown.
And with three tense rounds to play in the closest scramble for semifinal places in years, the Cape side are in the death zone close to the summit, starting up, metaphorically speaking, at the Hillary Step, knowing that a slip-up could prove terminal.
The only consolation for Erasmus' team is that most of their rivals are in a similar situation. None more so than the Sharks, who lost ace French flyhalf Frederic Michalak to a knee injury in the defeat to the Waratahs in Sydney.
Apart from the bragging rights of reaching the semifinals, there are financial implications as well.
Stormers managing director Rob Wagner said that revenue from a home Super 14 semifinal would be about R2-million.
But for a final at Newlands, Western Province would rake in substantially more, as season ticket and suite holders packages did not include the Super 14 showpiece.