THE Bulls may have to wait a bit longer to see Lee Smith and Ross Oakes back in action.

Geoff Toovey has highlighted their possible return as a major lift for the Bottom Eights.

Yet he is hedging his bets whether Smith will be ready for the Odsal opener against Toulouse next Sunday – and Oakes is still some way off being fit to resume combat.

Toovey said: "Lee Smith has been involved in parts of training but whether he'll be right for the game in a week's time, I'm not overly optimistic but I'm hopeful.

"Oakes won't be back for a few more weeks at least. It's frustrating because he was playing well.

"Then obviously you've got Dane Chisholm out for the year and Ashley Gibson's had an operation, so he's out for the rest as well."

But Joe Keyes and Ross Peltier are both back to full health after the problems they suffered in the dismal home loss to Swinton.

Toovey admitted after the game that he was wrong to play Keyes, who was having trouble with his back.

"Keyesy couldn't train all week because his back was playing up and it was obvious in the game that was the case," said the Bradford coach.

"We were desperate to win and he was part of that – but in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have played him.

"But he's much better now. It's settled down and he trained the back end of this week. Hopefully he'll be right with a bit of a break over the weekend."

Peltier came off hobbling on his comeback from a serious ankle injury, sparking initial fears that he had returned too soon.

But Toovey said: "It was more panic with Ross than anything else. He rolled his ankle again and he panicked a bit.

"It came good for him to go back on if he needed to but we decided to rest that up. He just had a bit of a panic attack when he hurt it. It's fine."