Duhan van der Merwe “has a chance” of returning to action in Edinburgh’s URC quarter-final away to Bulls on Saturday, says head coach Sean Everitt.
Scotland’s record try-scorer has been sidelined since March after suffering ankle ligament damage, an injury that cast some doubt on whether he would be fit for involvement with the Lions this summer.
Van der Merwe, who had surgery in April, has flown with Edinburgh to his birth-country with a view to being included in the squad for Saturday’s last-eight clash in South Africa.
“Duhan will be flying with the team,” the head coach said.
“He’s got one more training session to get through for his return to play but at the moment he’s booked on the flight to Pretoria, and everyone that’s on the flight has a chance of being involved in the match 23.
“We have to see how he responds to the flight, like everyone else, and obviously we’ve got another training session to get through.
“He has been in and out of training last week and he finished a full day of training today, which was a double session, and hopefully he gets through tomorrow.
“Part of his rehabilitation programme is to be ready to return to rugby from a fitness point of view, but it’s just the fact that he hasn’t been involved in many 15 v 15 sessions, so we’re hoping that he can hit the ground running.”
Despite his injury, Van der Merwe was selected in Andy Farrell’s Lions squad earlier this month and Everitt said the 29-year-old wing is eager to get some game time under his belt for his club before he goes to Australia in the summer.
“I think it’s one thing playing for the British and Irish Lions, and the second thing is that every performance that he puts in from now on will help in his selection in the Test team,” Everitt added.
“That’s the ultimate goal, playing Test rugby for the Lions against Australia. So, yes, he’ll be keen to play, but we won’t put him on the field if he’s not ready.”
