Naka Drotské charged at four armed intruders and tackled them out of his brother’s house on Thursday night.

The former Bok hooker is in a stable condition after being shot three times during a home invasion on a smallholding in Kameeldrift, outside of Pretoria.

Drotské, his former teammate Os du Randt, his brother Tinus and his girlfriend Nadia Jooste had just sat down for dinner when the four men barged into the house. At the time, Tinus’ sons and Jooste’s daughter were watching a movie in another room.

Tinus told News24 that Drotské tackled all four suspects out of the house to get them away from his family.

‘Nadia was at the other door to close it, she froze, so I stood up and thought they were going to shoot because they had these 9mms in our faces, so I stood over her to protect her,’ he said.

‘The next moment Naka charged the suspects, rugby-tackling them out of the house, over the tables outside.’

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When the intruders opened fire on Naka, Du Randt ran outside and the suspects fled. Jooste said Du Randt’s decision to rush Drotské to hospital, instead of waiting for an ambulance, probably saved his life.

‘They were about 3km away from the hospital and there was an accident, they drove over an island and the tyres burst,’ said Jooste. ‘So Os jumped in front of a car to stop people to get Naka to hospital. He then stopped a second car, so he could get to the hospital to be with his teammate. Os thought very quickly.’

Meanwhile, Du Randt has shared a message from Drotské’s wife Marzanne, who confirmed that he is steadily improving and doing well under the circumstances. He is still in a lot of pain and was sedated to help him sleep through the night.

Photo: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images