Cape Town - Former Lions lock Andries Ferreira will return to South Africa from New Zealand after being released by the Hurricanes.

According to the Stuff.co.nz website, the 28-year-old suffered a recurrence of a knee injury and has been sent home without playing a game for the Hurricanes.



Ferreira arrived in Wellington at the beginning of the month to replace Sam Lousi who suffered a season-ending pectoral muscle injury which required surgery.

"He had a recurrence of an injury that he had last year. We thought that he was all good, but he's come out here and tweaked it again at training," Hurricanes coach John Plumtree said.

Plumtree said it would only take about three weeks for him to recover from the injury, but they needed a fit lock in the squad now.

"It's not worth the effort of doing that (rehab), we'll just run with what we've got."

Ferreira previously played Super Rugby for Lions and Cheetahs, as well as completing club rugby stints in France, Italy and Japan.