Kyle Sinckler is in contention to make his first Bristol Bears appearance since June, providing the England prop is cleared to play by the Professional Game Board (PGB).
Sinckler has been given a delayed return to Premiership action after his involvement on the British & Irish Lions tour, with an initial rest period of 10 weeks meaning he and the other members of Warren Gatland's squad couldn't play again until October 18.
The 28-year-old has been training at the Bears High Performance Centre and director of rugby Pat Lam has revealed that Sinckler has requested to play in Friday's night's West Country derby against Bath.
An application has been submitted to the Player Performance Management Group (PPMG) - a sub-committee of the PGB - and providing they give Sinckler the green light, with obvious concerns around player welfare, he can line up in the front row for the Bears.
"All the Lions players have requested to get back playing, across the board," Lam said. "It's all driven by each player, each player makes the decision themselves.
"What we'll never do is tell a player he has to come back and play. It's up to the player. Kyle is one of them who has requested he wants to play and then it goes to the RFU and then ourselves.
"A lot of them (Lions players) have been back training and if they're like me, they hate training if they're not playing. The whole point of being a rugby player is to play rugby.
"Again, you have to sign it off with the players' association, because it's their union, and the one thing I'd never do is force anyone to play any rugby, if they don't want to play and need to rest."
Sinckler's return would certainly be a huge boost to a Bears team whose season hasn't got going following two defeats, including last Saturdays 44-8 thumping at the hands of Wasps.
Lam is dealing with a number of injury absentees, as is the case with all Premiership head coaches, but the other significant individual yet to take part in the 2021/22 season is Semi Radradra.
The Fijian superstar has also been training after his return to the UK from the Pacific Islands was delayed by Covid-19 protocols and paperwork, but wasn't included in the matchday squad against Wasps.
With another week's training under his belt, the 29-year-old could be primed to take on Bath at Ashton Gate but Lam was keeping his cards a little close to his chest surrounding the status of his all-star centre.
"We're still going through him at the moment so we'll let you know the team on Thursday," Lam added.
Lam confirmed that scrum-half Harry Randall is back in Bristol following his time away with England and could feature against Bath, while Joe Joyce has returned to training after recovering from a shoulder injury.
