Francis Cummins will be reunited with his squad at Bulls pre-season testing on Monday.

Both John Bateman and new recruit Garreth Carvell, who have knee and rib injuries respectively, will attend the session at the club’s Tong training centre but will not be able to take part in the fitness tests.

However, Luke Gale, who missed out on the chance to play for England Knights against Samoa last weekend after having an ankle clear-out, has recovered fully and will feature.

“We don’t have too many concerns,” said Cummins. “Gaz (Carvell) is on his holidays at the moment but he’ll be back next week to see all the boys.

“He won’t be back in training for a few weeks yet though because he needs to recover but that’s not that much of an issue.

“Every player will have a programme tailored to them and players like Gaz and Matt Diskin won’t need to do the same pre-season as the likes of Ben Evans and Adam O’Brien, because they’re 32 and 33.

“Obviously they’ll have to do some hard work but they’ll be doing it differently to the rest of the squad.

“John (Bateman) is looking good now. Obviously it was his shoulder that was the problem last year and he missed pre-season and, just when he was coming back into some real good form at the back end of the year, he twisted his ankle. But John should be good to go and he’ll start running on it next week.

“Luke had a flush-out over the off season because he’s had a little bit of irritation in his joints but he says it feels great now.

“He’s currently training on it and he can’t wait to get going after resting from the Knights.”

The Bulls head coach himself cannot wait to get started after beginning the preparations for the 2014 season immediately after their final game against Huddersfield.

Cummins added: “It’s not stopped since the season ended. I’ve not been away since we’ve finished so we’ve put a few things to bed and we’ve been putting things in place for pre-season and renovating Tong.

“We’re pretty much there now, with the club investing in some great new gym equipment and staff and we’re ready to go.

“The players are ready for it as well and they can’t wait to get back together.”