RUGBY NEWS - Springbok winger Jamba Ulengo will be sent to a specialist in Switzerland as the Vodacom Bulls look outside the box to try and cure a painful tendon injury.
Ulengo picked up the injury during the Currie Cup season and last played for the Bulls against the Pumas on 23 August last year. He has been struggling ever since.
On Monday the Bulls' team doctor, Herman Rossouw, confirmed that they would looking at a new approach since Ulengo wasn’t responding to the treatment he had been assigned.
While it has been confirmed that he hasn’t got a patella tear, the Bulls now are looking for outside help in trying to get the Springbok back on the field. And as such, they are now trying to get him an urgent appointment with Swiss-based physician Professor Hakan Alfredson, who is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the area.
Once the appointment is confirmed, Ulengo will head to Switzerland to seek help on the injury and the Bulls are hopeful he will be back in training sooner rather than later. The alternative seems to be a career-threatening diagnosis that nobody wants to hear.
“He got cleared, he actually doesn’t have a tear. We’re identifying a tendon specialist overseas,” coach John Mitchell said.
“We’re just hoping to get news on that within the week and then we’re hoping to send him to the specialist, which is good news because if we can get to this tendon specialist, there is every chance he will feature early.
“Initially there were concerns for his career, I guess with that type of patella injury but we as a club value him and we’d like to make sure we exhaust all possibilities hence the reason in finding an overseas tendon specialist and surgeon which means if it goes to plan, positively, it could be a two-week job and we have Jamba back with us.”
