Pollard remains sidelined

Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar will have a few tricky selections to make ahead of the opening round of the Currie Cup season.

The Bulls start their campaign with a big north-south derby against defending champions Western Province at Newlands on Saturday.

Top of his selection posers is the position of flyhalf - with the top three players in that position not available.

This comes after the Bulls confirmed on Monday that Handré Pollard is the only confirmed casualty ahead of the opening match.

Pollard is still recovering from a shoulder injury and although he will be training this week, will not yet be exposed to contact drills - ruling him out of the season's opener at Newlands on Saturday.

French-bound Springbok Morné Steyn is obviously no longer available and back-up Louis Fouché is one of several long-term injury problems.

Tony Jantjies, brother of Bok Alton Jantjies, has been running drills at training and is believed to be in line along with utility back Jurgen Visser.

Courtnall Skosan will also only train on Wednesday due to a quad strain, but will be available for selection for the match against defending champions, WP.

Francois Hougaard (ankle) and Basil Short (knee) have been added to the long term casualty list

Following surgery they will join Cornell Hess (knee), Deon Stegmann (shoulder), Arno Botha (knee), Pierre Spies (bicep) and Louis Fouché (knee) in a rehab program for the next four to six months.

The Bulls will also be without all their players on international duty with the Boks - Bjorn Basson (wing), JJ Engelbrecht (centre/wing), Zane Kirchner (fullback), Chiliboy Ralepelle (hooker), Jan Serfontein (centre) and Jano Vermaak (scrumhalf).