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Cape Town - With their pre-season set to get underway this coming weekend, the Stormers are missing a host of players through injury.
The Cape franchise are set to play the SWD Eagles in George on Saturday and they will have to do so without the services of a number of key players, including Springboks Eben Etzebeth and Frans Malherbe.
In addition to Etzebeth and Malherbe, players who were not available for selection due to injury include Jean-Luc du Plessis (groin), Dan du Plessis (shoulder), Jano Vermaak (knee), Jan de Klerk (knee), Scarra Ntubeni (hamstring), EW Viljoen (foot), Michael Kumbirai (back), Grant Hermanus (groin), Johan du Toit (knee) and Justin Phillips (rib).
And some of these players will be out for an extended period.
Etzebeth has seen a multidisciplinary team of doctors regarding his shoulder injury and is being evaluated weekly, but is not yet fit to train and will be out for at least four months.
Jean-Luc and Dan du Plessis are both expected to be sidelined for a further eight weeks, with Jean-Luc recovering from recent groin surgery in the USA and Dan out with a shoulder injury.
Vermaak will also be out of action for a further two months with a knee injury that was seen to in the off-season, whilst Malherbe continues to recover from his neck injury and is only expected back later in the season.
Kick-off in George is at 15:00.
