Three months on since he played his last game against Harlequins, Scotland tight-head WP Nel will return for Edinburgh against the West London side in the European Challenge Cup on Saturday afternoon.
Nel was rested for a prolonged period to get over a neck injury, missing all of Scotland’s Autumn Test campaign, but the plan was always to bring him back to get enough game time prior to the RBS 6 Nations.
The rest spell has been carefully managed, said acting head coach Duncan Hodge, who has named a strong team for the visit to the Twickenham Stoop which could determine whether the capital side get a quarter-final place.
Nel’s fellow prop Al Dickinson again misses out with a foot injury and Sean Kennedy is preferred to Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, but with Hamish Watson back in the back row it’s close to a full-strength side.
The only surprise absence is club captain Grant Gilchrist who is left out of the squad and not named among those not considered due to injury.
Fraser McKenzie takes his position in the second row against a Quins team that does not feature either of their Scottish internationalists Ruiradh Jackson or Tim Visser.
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, C Dean, P Burleigh, T Brown; D Weir, S Kennedy; A Dell, R Ford, WP Nel; F McKenzie, B Toolis; M Bradbury, H Watson, C du Preez.
Replacements: N Cochrane, J Cosgrove, S Berghan, L Carmichael, V Mata, S Hidalgo-Clyne, J Tovey, M Allen.