“BADLY bruised” lock Anton Bresler is expected to be fit for Worcester Warriors’ Christmas cracker against London Irish at Sixways on Saturday (3pm).

The Namibian suffered a blow to his bicep and had to be withdrawn six minutes into the second half of Warriors’ thrashing by Gloucester last Friday.

But director of rugby Alan Solomons is confident Bresler who has started in all six of Worcester’s Gallagher Premiership matches this season will line-up against Irish.

“There are no major (injury) concerns at this stage,” Solomons said.

“There are knocks and bumps so it is going to take until the end of the week to see how those pan out.

“But there is nothing major I can see at this moment.

“Anton took a blow to the bicep so it’s obviously quite badly bruised, but he will be fine.”

Number eight Cornell du Preez went off for a head injury assessment on 56 minutes and did not return to the field. But du Preez is also likely to take on Irish.

“Cornell was available to come back on but as a precaution we decided not to,” Solomons said.

“We do have an eight-day turnaround which is going to be beneficial to us.

"He will be fine."

Back rower Marco Mama could also be back in the selection mix.

The influential forward ended his six-week injury lay-off when he started in Worcester Cavaliers’ 11-try trouncing of Wasps A last week before being rested for Saturday’s Premiership Shield triumph at Gloucester United.

“Marco was in training today, but he has not had a lot of rugby under his belt,” Solomons said.

“He has only had 40 minutes after being out for quite a while.

“In theory he could play but one has got to take everything into consideration before making that decision.”

Centres Ollie Lawrence and Will Butler have also returned to training this week after overcoming ankle issues. But Solomons admitted the duo were not ready to play.

“Ollie has started practising today,” Solomons said.

“Obviously the sessions are modified for him but it is good that he is back out there. Ideally Ollie will come into consideration for selection next week.

“We had hoped Will would be back for the next Cavaliers game at the end of the month. But I think it will the game against Enisei-STM on January 11.

“He had a tiny setback so let’s make sure he is right.”