Dowson delivers latest Saints injury update ahead of Clermont clash
Saints will remain without full-back George Furbank when they host Clermont Auvergne in a huge Investec Champions Cup clash on Friday night (kick-off 8pm).
But they will have Henry Pollock and Burger Odendaal available after the duo picked up dead legs against Sale Sharks last weekend.
Furbank has been out since December after breaking his arm in the win against Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria.
He had hoped to be back last month, but Saints boss Phil Dowson this week said: "He's okay, he's had a couple of setbacks, nothing major, but he won't be available this week."
Pollock scored a wonder try during the second half at Sale last Friday but then appeared to take a knock, while Odendaal also came off late on.
But when asked about Pollock, Dowson said: "He's fine. He and Burger both had dead legs but they've both trained fully this week."
Saints were without all of their fly-half options against Sale as Fin Smith had to be rested so he could face Clermont, while George Makepeace-Cubitt, Charlie Savala and Rory Hutchinson were added to the injury list.
That meant scrum-half Tom James started at fly-half for the first time, while No.9 Alex Mitchell took on kicking duties.
"Charlie took a knock in training, Hutch took a knock in the Leicester game, Fin was away on mandatory rest and Furbs was injured," Dowson said.
"So we lost everyone all at once and that's when you have to make the best of a bad situation - and I thought TJ was excellent.
"His application during the week and the way he played spoke volumes about him as a character.
"We spoke about it and thought who were the players who could do it and who were the candidates.
"TJ is a good footballer and Sam (Vesty) and I had a conversation with him and his attitude was such that he wanted to give it a go and he had the raw skills to do it.
"It's the nature of the beast. We're not the first club who have had to put players in different positions.”
Smith is now back in training after his rest week, while Savala and Hutchinson have also been on the paddock.
"It's great to now have the players back and fighting to get selected,” Dowson said.
"Players are coming back into consideration and that can only be a good thing."
Along with Furbank, Saints are set to remain without Ollie Sleightholme, Archie McParland, Robbie Smith and Sam Graham this week.