VETERAN centre Wynand Olivier could be back in a Worcester Warriors jersey “quite shortly” according to director of rugby Alan Solomons.

The former South Africa international and 2007 Rugby World Cup winner has not played for Warriors since October last year due to a hamstring injury.

The 35-year-old was expected to return to action in February only to suffer a further set-back which required surgery in January.

But Solomons reckoned Olivier was among several players including Ben Te’o and Ethan Waller who were on the “cusp of returning”.

“Wynand went again to see the specialist,” Solomons said.

“We are pretty positive that he would be in that group that is going to return quite shortly.”

Solomons has plenty of options at centre with Ryan Mills and Francois Venter starting in Warriors’ opening two games.

Ashley Beck came off the bench to make his competitive debut in the defeat at Sale Sharks last Sunday while Ollie Lawrence starred in Worcester Cavaliers’ Premiership Rugby Shield win over Leicester Tigers on Monday.

But with four top-flight matches to come before Warriors’ attention turns to the European Challenge Cup Solomons said he would welcome the likes of Te’o and Olivier back into the fold.

“You know what this block (of games) is like – it is attritional and we have only played two of the six,” Solomons added.

“You need your players returning because it is tough.

“In those first 20 minutes (against Sale last Sunday) we made about 100 tackles.

“But equally Sale made quite a lot of tackles at the end of the first half and for (Chris Pennell’s) try when we held onto the ball for four minutes, 32 seconds before we scored after (Josh Adams’) sublime offload.”