The national provincial championship, now called the Mitre 10 Cup, will kick off next month and coach Cory Brown will name his squad in under three weeks.
But who will be named, and how many will be available to play in the pre-season, is still up in the air as injury and Super rugby affects the side.
With up to 15 Otago players taking part in the Super rugby competition, the Otago side may not be able to come together and train as a full squad until a few days before the Mitre 10 Cup starts.
The squad is due to be named by Brown on July 25 and will go fulltime from that day.
But Brown may not be able to get his hands on the Super rugby players until August 15. Otago's first game is on August 21.
The Super rugby competition regular season finishes on July 16 but then goes into three weeks of playoffs with the final scheduled for August 6. After that, players will go on leave for two weeks.
When the Otago players will become available is still not clear although it could be as late as August 15 as players will have to take some leave when the season ends.
Brown said it should not be too disruptive.
"The good thing about it is that it just gives an opportunity to another player. And that is all players want, to be able to play at the next level above Dunedin club rugby,'' Brown said.
He said his job was to promote players to the next level which was Super rugby so although Otago could be seen as being a victim of its success it was not complaining.
The pre-season for Otago kicks off on July 24 when a shadow Otago team playing as the Sassenachs takes on the Spartans, a shadow Southland side.
The match at the University Oval will be played the day after the club final and no player in that final will be eligible to play for the Sassenachs.
The Sassenachs will get another outing on August 6, when they take on the Cantabrians in Dunedin.
Near neighbours Otago and Canterbury have for some reason not played each other in warm-up games for some years.
But Brown said officials from both unions decided it was best to get the teams playing again.
The final warm-up game will be against Southland in Queenstown on August 11.
The two sides will clash 10 days later in Invercargill in the opening round of the Mitre 10 Cup. There was a suggestion not to play the game as it was too close to the competitive match but both coaches decided it would still be worthwhile.
Otago will head to Queenstown on August 8 for a mini camp in the resort involving work on the training paddock and some community engagement activity. The match against Southland will be at the conclusion of the camp.
Brown said he was happy with the standard of club rugby he had seen so far.
Former Otago No8 Paul Grant, who has been signed for this season, has strained a calf but is expected to be right well before the Otago season starts.
