Springbok No 8 and South Africa’s Rugby Player of the Year in 2014, Duane Vermeulen, is in a race against time to be fit for the Rugby World Cup after it was revealed that he has to undergo surgery on a neck injury, but national skipper Jean de Villiers has been cleared to return to the game this weekend.

De Villiers, who had a full knee reconstruction towards the end of 2014, is 1 of 6 injured players who were given the all clear from the Springbok medical team to be considered for selection against the World XV at DHL Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday. The others are Pat Lambie, Cobus Reinach, Lionel Mapoe, Schalk Burger and Lood de Jager.

Although Jan Serfontein (hip and knee) is recovering well from his injury, he will not be considered for selection this week. Furthermore, Scarra Ntubeni and Faf de Klerk are over their ankle niggles from late last week and took full part in training on Monday, while Heinrich Brüssow (broken arm) has recovered well, but is still a week or 2 away from playing.

“Our medical team worked very hard on the injured players and it’s a great positive to see the guys return,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer on Monday.

“I’m especially pleased for Jean. He worked incredibly hard with the Springbok and WP medical teams to get back to match fitness and we’ve got a plan for how we want to manage his return, which could involve matches for his province as well.”

“We do have a number of great loose forwards available for selection, but with Willem Alberts also not available, this will be a good test of our depth.”

Along with Vermeulen and Alberts, Fourie du Preez, Frans Steyn and Pieter-Steph du Toit are still out with injuries and will not be considered for selection for the next few weeks. Oupa Mohoje and Schalk Brits took knocks and did not complete the training session on Monday. They will be reassessed later in the week.