Grant Hattingh
Callie Visagie
The Vodacom Bulls are likely to lose the services of hooker Callie Visagie for the first few weeks of the 2015 season as he underwent shoulder surgery Tuesday in Pretoria.
With the 2014 season having come to an end, Visagie and lock Grant Hattingh are the two medical headaches for the Bulls. The surgery, in both cases is to rectify injuries that have plagued them the entire season.
SuperSport
Visagie’s surgery, depending on how serious the damage was – which was only ascertained during the operation, means he wil be be out for anything from a month to four months. Confirmation of the seriousness is awaited.
If it is the worst case scenario it would mean he would be in doubt for the pre-season training and only return close to the start of the 2015 Vodacom Super Rugby season, and in all likelihood miss the opening few games.
This would not be a train smash as the Bulls will have their Springbok hooker, Adriaan Strauss, arriving after the November Springbok tour and also have another Springbok in Bandise Maku waiting in the wings to play as well.
Hattingh will have his ankle operated on and will be out of commission for eight weeks, allowing him to return early in the new year.
The Bulls’ tighthead prop, Marcel van der Merwe, was ruled out on Monday for between four and six weeks with a knee injury, meaning he will miss out on the Bok tour of Ireland, England, Italy and Wales next month.