Vodacom Bulls midfielder Burger Odendaal will return to training today after a successful rehabilitation phase on a meniscal knee injury which saw him miss the opening part of the Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Odendaal will find a number of team mates missing on Monday though, as Jan Serfontein (stiff hip flexor), Marcel van der Merwe (contusion)and Dean Greyling (neck) will only return to the training field on Tuesday and Roelof Smit (ankle) and Lappies Labuschagne (nasal fracture) only on Thursday.
Amongst the longer term injuries, Jacques-Louis Potgieter (1 week, hamstring), Flip van der Merwe (pectoral, 2 weeks) and Akona Ndungane (hand, 3 weeks) are a week closer to returning to the fold.
William Small-Smith (foot, 5 – 7 weeks), Pierre Schoeman (knee, 15 July), Bandise Maku (pectoral, 31 July), Carlo Engelbrecht (ankle, 7 weeks), Werner Kruger (ankle, 7 weeks), Duncan Matthews (knee, 31 August) remains on the long term injury list.