Bundee Aki is available for Connacht's difficult trip to Premiership leaders Leicester on Sunday - but Mack Hansen is a major doubt.
The westerners got off to a flying start in their bid to become the first team from the province to qualify for the Champions Cup knock-out stages by earning a bonus point victory over Stade Francais in Galway last Sunday.
Aki didn't feature, and has only played once for the westerners this season, but the Ireland centre is ready to return for the formidable assignment against the Tigers.
"At this stage he's looking likely to be available," said Friend. "He's a great energy around the group.
"To go to Welford Road you need your most experienced, and biggest players and Bundee is certainly one of those.
"If he's available there's every chance he'll be playing. We've got a few blokes getting treated and looked at today. We might name a team internally in the next 24 hours and pick a squad.
"It's our day one, because we're on a Sunday rotation. A third of a way through a season it's hard to know what you have ahead with available bodies.
"Our physio staff aren't knocking on the door every two minutes which is a good thing. And in fact normally if I've to go find them it's a good thing. It wasn't all roses, but it isn't too bad."
One player who is unlikely to make it, however, is Hansen, the westerners' exciting winger who missed out on last weekend's victory with a calf injury.
"He's getting better, but we'll wait and see how the week plays out as to where he ends up," said Friend.
The Connacht supremo is conscious of the province's poor record in England and knows that task that is at hand this week.
However he is keen to approach the fixture on the front-foot.
"I think the important thing is that we don't live life in the rear-view mirror, we look ahead," he remarked.
"What's happened is history and we can learn from that, but it's what's going to happen, or what sits in front of us that we focus on. I say that respectfully.
"We haven't had success, but we won't be talking about that to the players. We certainly don't even focus on it, because what's gone before us we can't change, all we can change is what's coming up.
"Our whole focus is how we're going, what we need to do, what are the threats they pose, how do we resist those, how do we impose our game style or our identity on Leicester at one o'clock on Sunday.
"We won't be talking about what's happened previously.
"We have (struggled), historically. But we said at the front end of this competition that we want to be the first Connacht team to come out of the pool stages.
"We still believe in that and still want to be that team.
"We're very aware of the challenge ahead of us, but we'll see how we go through the course of the week in terms of what team we pick, but we'll definitely be going out there to compete.
"We've got to be us, that's why you have an identity. You have an identity because you believe in it and you train for it, and it's what you do.
"Similar to Leicester having an identity, which they do. I don't know what words they use but you can see the way they pay.
"Everyone knows what they try to do, and they do it very, very well.
"We have an identity which we talked about which we're working hard to make sure we put out on the pitch every single game, and I think we're getting better at.
"We have to respect the strengths they have, which we will, but at the same time it's more about us and what we do and how we play our game."
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