Arno Botha

Vodacom Bulls loose forward Arno Botha will return to training next week after recovering well from a pectoral muscle tear, but flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter could be on the side-lines for another week.

According to Vodacom Bulls team doctor Org Strauss, Botha will train next Monday and Potgieter, who picked up a hamstring injury last week, will be assessed then. Potgieter was a late withdrawal from the Bulls team that won against the Cell C Sharks on the weekend and could be out of action for 2 weeks.

No one picked up any injuries in that win, although Francois Hougaard, Deon Stegmann and Lappies Labuschagne only trained on Tuesday, due to light niggles.

Duncan Matthews were less fortunate though. The outside back tore his ACL playing for UP-Tuks in the Varsity Cup and will be side-lined till at least September.

He joins Flip van der Merwe (pectoral, April), William Small-Smith (foot, 2 months), Pierre Schoeman (ACL knee, July), Bandise Maku (pectoral, August), Werner Kruger (ankle, 10 weeks), Carlo Engelbrecht (ankle, 10 weeks) and Burger Odendaal (knee, 3 weeks) on the injury list.