Tom Croft will appear in Leicester Tigers' match-day squad for the first time in the Aviva Premiership this weekend at Bath.
Having recovered from a knee injury which kept him out for nearly all of the last campaign, a shoulder injury has restricted him to just two appearances in pre-season.
He nearly made a comeback last weekend at Exeter, but director of rugby Richard Cockerill explained he wanted to make sure his British & Irish Lions flanker was not rushed back into action.
"Crofty is in the 23 this week," said Cockerill. "Last week he was about right but he had not done enough, so I wanted him to have a full training week before he came back into the squad.
"He knows that we will look after him. Hopefully those injuries are behind him now and we can crack on and get the best out of him.
"Crofty playing well for us is good. He will hopefully have a good run now and push himself for the Test team in the autumn and Six Nations."
Cockerill will have to decide whether Croft starts on the pitch or on the bench and, with Jamie Gibson having put in two excellent shifts against Newcastle and Exeter, that provides him with a real headache.
Elsewhere, there are unlikely to be many more changes from the side that saw Leicester remain one of only three unbeaten teams in the Premiership after two rounds of matches.
Mat Tait, Geoff Parling and Anthony Allen all came through their first league starts of the season well.
With the likes of Brad Thorn (bicep), Michele Rizzo (knee) and Miles Benjamin (knee) not due back until the end of the month, Cockerill is likely to stay with a reasonably unchanged squad.
That means fly-half Freddie Burns is expected to hold on to the No.10 shirt, keeping last season's sensation, Owen Williams on the sidelines.
"As Freddie's game gets more comfortable, you would expect him to be more relaxed and make better and better choices all of the time," said Cockerill.
"Owen will push him hard and want his chance soon and they push each other well.
"If Owen had not been banned, Freddie would have not started the season because Owen did so well for us last season.
"But Freddie has done well. When he joined, I sat down with him and said, 'This is how we work here with regards to training, time-keeping, kit and social media and this is what I expect from you. It's non-negotiable'.
"He was fine with that and I have had no issues with him yet.
"He wants to play and knows that if he doesn't play well, we have other good options, like Owen, that will put him under pressure for his spot."
