THE majority of Worcester Warriors’ playing squad will be reporting back for pre-season training in a month’s time.

Warriors rounded off their Aviva Premiership campaign last Saturday with a heavy 43-19 defeat against Saracens.

And it won’t be long until the players return to Sixways on Monday, June 6 to try to build on last term’s 10th-placed finish.

Scrum-half Francois Hougaard is hoping to arrive back at Worcester in September after representing South Africa’s sevens team at the Rio Olympics.

Prop James Johnston has been called up to the Samoa squad for Tests next month against Georgia, Fiji and Tonga.

Wing Cooper Vuna is exploring Olympic Sevens opportunities with Tonga, the nation he represented at rugby league.

Back rower Marco Mama has been granted a break because he will be involved in Bristol’s Championship play-off finals against Doncaster Knights until the end of this month.

And powerhouse centre Ben Te’o could miss the first part of pre-season if he is selected to tour Australia or South Africa with England.

Lock Darren Barry has had an operation on his shoulder but scrum-half Jonny Arr is on track for a summer return to full fitness after his knee operation in January.

Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan says the club’s coaching staff will remain the same and he is looking forward to working with the club’s new arrivals.

Lock Will Spencer (Bath), hooker Matt Williams (Northampton Saints) and centre Jackson Willison (Grenoble) will join Te’o as new arrivals.

“The boys are back in on June 6,” confirmed Ryan, who released 12 playing members of last season's squad, including Alex Grove.

“A few guys could have international commitments but we hope to have the majority of them back and then we will be back into training.

“Pre-season will take shape on the normal front and then we will be back out for pre-season games fairly quickly.”

Ryan believes Warriors will be in a “stronger place” than when they clinched promotion from the Championship last May.

“There will be no changes to the coaching staff and we’ve got five new players coming in,” he said.

“We will be picking up our game at a much higher level than where we were last year and that gives us an opportunity to improve again.

“We didn’t see this season as changing 10 to 15 players in the squad.”

He added: “We feel we are in a much stronger place that we were at the beginning of last season.

“The five players coming in will be a massive enhancement and therefore we will become more competitive in this league.”