Cornish Pirates captain John Stevens could return to the side in the next few weeks after a 17-month absence.
The 31-year-old has been out since seriously injuring knee ligaments in the opening game of last season against Nottingham.
After surgery to fix both his anterior and cruciate ligaments in October 2024 he returned to training earlier this year.
He had his first game minutes last week when he came on as a 60th-minute replacement for National Two West side Redruth in their loss at home to Taunton.
Stevens could pull on a Pirates shirt for the first time this season in the friendly with Harlequins on 7 March, with the club’s first Champ game away at Richmond a fortnight later.
“Everyone’s over the moon for him that he’s obviously getting minutes,” Pirates’ joint-head coach Alan Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.
“He’ll have another game this week for Redruth, he’ll probably feature in our game against Harlequins and then there’s a break and there’s no reason at that point, all going well we can’t reintegrate him back in.
“If we look at his trajectory hopefully he can hit form as we approach the last couple of games of the season.
“Then you never know, if we make the playoffs, I think with the firepower that we potentially could have on the pitch I think a lot of teams won’t enjoy playing against us.
“But we’ve got to keep the squad healthy, they’ve got to continue this vein of form, I’m sure there’s going to be a few bumps and bruises along the way, but we’ve got to stay focused on trying to get to that play-off.”
