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Cape Town - The Cheetahs will have to wait a while longer before flank Heinrich Brussow and centre Johan Sadie return from club commitments in Japan.
The duo play for the Docomo Red Hurricanes and will only return for the Cheetahs' Super Rugby campaign once their commitments in Japan are completed.
Their club, the Docomo Red Hurricanes, won their quarter-final clash in the Japanese league's wildcard tournament 36-27 against Toyota Verblitz at the weekend.
The wildcard tournament is contested between the sides finishing fifth to 12th in the Japanese league, to determine which two teams advance to the All-Japan Championship.
The Red Hurricanes play their semi-final this weekend and Brussow and Sadie will only return once their team gets knocked out.
Should the Red Hurricanes go all the way to the final, the South African duo would only return in the week leading up to the Cheetahs' first Super Rugby match, against the Sharks in Durban on February 14.
The Cheetahs are due to face the Stormers in a pre-season friendly at Newlands on Friday. They were due to face the Griffons in Welkom the following day, but that game has been rescheduled for next Wednesday.
Brussow is also in line to become Cheetahs captain and it would have been ideal to have him with the squad earlier, so it would be interesting to see if it has any bearing on which player is chosen to lead the team in 2015.
According to Netwerk24, other candidates for captain are Francois Uys, Oupa Mohoje and Willie Britz.
