The Vodacom Blue Bulls coach, Nollis Marais, received good news on his playing squad preparing to face ORC Griquas in Pretoria on Friday. The team returned from Bloemfontein with no serious injury issues, with only a handful of players nursing slight niggles.
All of Dries Swanepoel (quad), Burger Odendaal (shoulder), Deon Stegmann (hip flexor) and Francois Hougaard (foot) will be back on the training field on Tuesday and will be considered for selection for the match against the Northern Cape team.
A number of players are also approaching their comeback date from injury. Justin Forwood trained on Monday and Neethling Fouche (ankle) will be back next week.
Ruan Steenkamp and Pierre Schoeman, who are recovering from knee injuries, is pencilled in to return at the end of the month and Ryan Nell and Duncan Matthews for 15 September.
Arno Botha will be returning in a month’s time.
The long-term injury list remains the same, with Irne Herbst, Piet van Zyl, Morné Mellett and Dennis Visser all out for the season.
A final call on possible surgery for Callie Visagie (foot) will be made on 15 August.