The Bulls have been dealt yet another injury blow following their victory over Leinster in the United Rugby Championship with Willie le Roux going under the knife.

Le Roux has been featuring at fly-half for Jake White’s side in recent matches following the injury to Johan Goosen but was stationed at his regular position of full-back as the Pretoria-based side ended Leinster’s unbeaten run with a 21-20 victory at Loftus Versveld on Saturday.

Willie Le Roux ruled out

However, the veteran Springboks back is now set for a spell of at least one month on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on a shoulder/neck concern, the Bulls have confirmed.

“We can confirm that Willie le Roux – this afternoon – underwent a minor repair in the shoulder/neck area. He is expected to return to full fitness within a short period of time as the procedure was a success,” a Bulls spokesperson said on Monday.

According to South African journalist Brenden Nel, the operation was to fix an old injury problem and not something that was sustained in the win over the Irish problem with Le Roux opting to sort it out now instead of struggling during the Test season.

2025 could well be Le Roux’s final year in the Springboks jersey with the 35-year-old aiming to become the eighth player to play 100 Tests for South Africa.

He enters the international season with 98 Test caps and while the operation is taking place now to get him fit for the Springboks, the Bulls also want him available for the knockout stages of the URC.

Bulls injury woes

White is likely to be without the services of winger Sebastian de Klerk for the upcoming match against Zebre following his red card against Leinster while there is some concern over Springboks Cameron Hanekom and Johan Grobbelaar.

Hanekom left the pitch early in the second half with a slight niggle with the coach admitting that he didn’t ‘think it is serious’ in the post-match presser.

He was less positive about hooker Grobbelaar, adding: “Grobbies is sitting with a sore shoulder, so we will have to see how he goes. One of the things that is so tough about this competition is that every week we lose between two and three players.

“You either get a suspension or an HIA or a long-term injury. If you work it out, what happens is you have 55 players with two and a half a week not available, after five, six weeks of consecutive rugby. If we win every game now, we’ve got 13 more Saturdays that we play, consecutively.”

Fellow forward Cobus Wiese is still expected to be sidelined for a few more weeks and the same is true for Goosen. On a positive note, Springboks back Canan Moodie is in line for a return after missing the clash against Leinster with a concussion.

Following the URC match with Zebre, who fell to a narrow 35-34 defeat to the Sharks, the Bulls head to France to tackle Zebre in the Challenge Cup knockout stages.