South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has hinted that he will rest a number of his stars for the Springboks end-of-year tour to Europe.

There are growing concerns over the large amount of game-time is having on South Africa's top players with the World Cup just over a year away.

De Villiers believes that it is mental and not physical exhaustion which is hampering his squad at the moment and he now looks set to give the senior players a rest when they embark on their overseas tour in November.

"I will take the best team overseas," he said.

"There are many of you in the media who said Victor isn't the best anymore, John isn't the best anymore and that Bryan isn't the best anymore. I might just start listening to you and leave them at home," he joked.

"If you take the minutes that say Morne Steyn played and compare it to Victor, there is a difference because Victor's workload is more.

"Sometimes those minutes don't tell the entire story. What it does show us is that they will be mentally tired.

"These guys have been overseas three times already this year to play rugby and have been away from their family.

"If it was up to them they would play rugby the whole year if their games were in South Africa.

"The mental exhaustion is sometimes much more apparent than the physical exhaustion. Their bodies are used to the physical exhaustion, but the mental exhaustion is the problem.

"The challenge for us is to get the balance right and to tell them to stop and go and spend some quality time with their loved ones."

Meanwhile, the Currie Cup sides have received a boost with the news that their Springbok stars will be released for the knock-out phases of the competition.

"The guys who are going overseas can't go overseas if we don't give them match practice beforehand," added De Villiers.

"The decisions we make have to be for the good of the team and any player we take overseas will have to have played three or four games."

This was essential, he believed, to ensure the players were in form when they went overseas. The Boks face a tough tour by playing all four home nations and ending the tour off with a Barbarians game.