The return of injured Springboks Bismarck du Plessis and Butch James will bolster The Sharks as they return home from their disasterous tour and as they ready themselves to face the South African Conference Log leaders, the Vodacom Bulls for the tough derby game at Kings Park this Saturday.

The Sharks are facing a crisis im midfield and the return of Butch James, from a long term knee injury, might see him slot straight into the starting lineup at inside centre for the clash.

The two centres who did duty for The Sharks on the weekend both have injury worries, with Meyer Bosman suffering a possible broken nose and JP Pietersen, who played at outside centre, having injured his groin in their 23 / 13 win over the Western Force in Perth. Both Bosman and Pietersen could miss this important clash with the Bulls as a result.

The other Sharks centres out of contention due to injury include Frans Steyn, Paul Jordaan and Tim Whitehead.

The likely centre pairing in the absense of Meyer Bosman and JP Pietersen could well be Butch James (inside centre) and Piet Lindeque (outside centre) but it must be said that Bosman’s possibly broken nose might not be enough to keep him out of the side.

Bismarck du Plessis has recovered well from his long knee injury and is reportedly fit again and chomping on the bit to get a run. The likelyhood is that Bismarck will start from the bench and with the stellar work Kyle Cooper has done in his absense, it makes good sense to do just that.

The clash between The Sharks and Vodacom Bulls takes place at Kings Park, Durban and kicks off at 19:10 on Saturday evening.