Brüssow and retired Bok for FS
Springbok loose forward Heinrich Brüssow will make his long-awaited return to the playing field on Saturday.
However, this piece of good news – ahead of the Free State Cheetahs' Currie Cup crunch match against Western Province – has been soured by the news of an escalating loose forward crisis.
So serious has the problem become that Springbok Hendro Scholtz has been called out of retirement to help out the Bloemfontein outfit.
Cheetahs hard-man Frans Viljoen will miss the remainder of the season, after he fractured his arm against the Sharks in Durban last week.
Despite the return of Brüssow, after he recovered from his latest knee injury, the Bok stalwart will most probably not play more than 40 minutes.
Add to that the loss of Viljoen, Lucas Floors (knee), Johannes Prinsloo (shoulder), Philip van der Walt (foot) and Juan Smith (Achilles) and the enormity of the crisis is put into perspective.
Not surprising Scholtz has been called out of retirement to provide cover on the bench.
The injuries mean Davon Raubenheimer comes off the bench to start at No.8 in place of Floors, while Pieter Labuschagne and Brüssow are the flanks.
In the only change to the backline stalwart Andries Strauss will start at inside centre ahead of Barry Geel.
Free State Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Nico Scheepers, 13 Robert Ebersohn (captain), 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Davon Raubenheimer, 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Hercu Liebenberg, 1 Schalk van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Elandré Huggett, 17 Ross Geldenhuys, 18 Waltie Vermeulen, 19 Hendro Scholtz, 20 Tewis du Bruyn, 21 Phillip Snyman, 22 Rayno Benjamin.
Date: Saturday, September 8
Venue: Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Assistant referees: Joey Salmans, François Groenewald
TMO: Gerrie Coetzee
