Edinburgh could welcome back Scotland quartet Ali Price, Grant Gilchrist and the fit-again Luke Crosbie and Mark Bennett when they host Bayonne on Saturday.
Price missed the two-match tour to South Africa to attend the birth of his daughter Luna, while Gilchrist was absent for personal reasons.
They are both now back in contention and could return to the side alongside Crosbie, who has not played since injuring his shoulder in Scotland’s win over Wales two months ago.
Bennett, meanwhile, suffered a concussion after making a big tackle in the lead-up to Jake Henry’s try against Stormers and missed the defeat to Sharks on Saturday.
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt confirmed he is also back in contention for the visit of the Top 14 side to Hive Stadium this weekend.
But the capital club’s depth in the back three is likely to be tested again. Everitt does not expect Emiliano Boffelli to be fit, while Darcy Graham is a long-term absentee and Harry Paterson is still recovering from a stress fracture in his foot.
Everitt said: “We sent Boff for tests on Tuesday and we’re awaiting the outcome. We’ll know soon whether he will be available for Saturday, but my gut-feel is that it’s unlikely.
“Darcy Graham won’t play until the play-offs, unless there is a miracle. And we’re hoping that he will be available for the play-offs, to be quite honest.
“Harry Paterson, with his stress fracture, ran for the first time on Monday. We’re hoping that he can return to training next week, but it should be the following week that he will be ready to play.”
Everitt knows what to expect from the weekend’s visitors, who are tenth in the Top 14 and have an impressive home record but have struggled on the road.
Their squad includes former France fly-half Camille Lopez, and while he talked about stopping their physicality, Everitt knows they must also nullify the threat of the veteran playmaker.
He added: “Bayonne are a team who have done well in the Top 14. They’ve won most of the games at home, apart from the one on Sunday night against Toulon where they were well beaten.
“They have a big, physical pack of forwards and we will need to stop their momentum off the rucks.
“They carry a lot through their forwards then they have a very dangerous player in their 10, Camille Lopez.
“We call him the conductor. He organises their attack really well and has an array of attacking kicks, as well as the ability to move the ball quickly to the edges. He’s a guy we will have to keep our eyes on.”
A game where the battle for gain line supremacy is going to be so key could be the ideal return for Crosbie.
“It’s a great game for him to come back in,” Everitt added.
“He’ll certainly add some physicality to our side.
“I thought we did quite well in that area in South Africa. If you look at our collisions at the weekend against the Sharks, I thought our boys stood up really well against a pack who pride themselves on physicality.
“In saying all that, Luke was the first choice six in the Six Nations and we’ll always be happy to have him back.”
Before this season, Bayonne – whose head coach is former France hooker Yannick Bru - had never faced Scottish opposition in a competitive match, a record that ended when Glasgow visited in December.
The Warriors returned from south-west France victorious, and Everitt believes there is plenty his side can take from that match.
“We’ve seen that Bayonne can be beaten,” he said.
“We also know they don’t travel well. I don’t think they’ve won a game on the road as yet so we’ve got to see this as a great opportunity to get into the last eight of the competition.”
Edinburgh are going into the match after back-to-back defeats in South Africa, which came accompanied by poor performances.
Hooker Ewan Ashman is looking forward to putting right those displays in front of a bumper home crowd on Saturday evening.
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"Everyone is buzzing to be back at home,” the Scotland international said, while insisting there were some good elements of Edinburgh’s 23-13 defeat to Sharks.
"We were going up against some World Cup winners and I was really proud of the boys' performance. We were bashing them about a bit.
“It's just the decision-making I feel like - when to take our opportunities, when to kick and when to run, we probably haven't found that balance yet.”
The former Sale Sharks man said Edinburgh must sharpen their decision-making and urged his team-mates to “be brave” from turnover opportunities.
"That will go a long way to making us a much better team,” Ashman added.
Meanwhile, Everitt also confirmed new signing Paul Hill, the former England prop, is not qualified to play for Scotland.
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The Edinburgh boss is happy he’s got the right blend in that position following the re-signings of Angus Williams and D’arcy Rae earlier in the week as the club prepares for life without WP Nel.
He added: “We do have three other Scottish-qualified props in our mix so we’re three out of four there in the tight-head department.
“It’s great that we are able to replace a guy like WP Nel with a guy who has more than 200 appearances for Northampton and has played six internationals for England.”
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