Stormers do a body count
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee will be hoping for plenty of positive news on Monday, as his team continue preparations for their Super Rugby semifinal.
The Sharks will travel to Cape Town for an all-South African semifinal against the Stormers, after they eliminated the defending Reds in Brisbane at the weekend.
The Durban-based franchise reached the semifinals for the first time since 2008, when they beat the Reds 30-17.
This was only the 11th away victory out of 62 knock-out matches in the history of Super Rugby.
The Stormers, who return from their two-day training camp in Caledon and Hermanus this weekend, earned homeground advantage after topping the table.
Coetzee, who revealed last week that burly loose forward Duane Vermeulen had started training again, said all the injured players will be assessed this week.
However, at least one player is set to return from injury.
"Eben Etzebeth is 100 percent ready to go," Coetzee said of the Springbok lock's recovery from an ankle injury.
Vermeulen, who has missed a large chunk of the season after injuring his knee against the Reds in Brisbane in mid-April, remains on the doubtful list.
And fellow loose forward Schalk Burger will not feature in the play-offs unless there is a dramatic change in fortunes for the Stormers in the next few days.
Players like flyhalf Peter Grant, Rynhardt Elstadt and Gio Aplon – who all missed the early part of the team's training last week – are expected to be fit.
The used the trip to Caledon and Hermanus to do the bulk of their physical preparations ahead of Saturday's encounter with the Sharks.
"Our training for the semifinal started this weekend and our preparation will be crucial as to how we wish to execute our plan," Coetzee said.
"We are in pretty good shape, injury wise, for this stage of the competition," the coach added.
