Ireland wing Mack Hansen is in "full training" and on course to return to action during Connacht's pre-season schedule.
The 26-year-old Australian missed out on the second half of last season, including the Six Nations, and Ireland’s drawn tour of South Africa with a shoulder injury.
Connacht had hoped that he would recover in time to play some role but the former Brumbies man remained sidelined with a shoulder injury picked up at the start of January.
He is unlikely to feature in Saturday’s friendly against Sale Sharks in Galway but trips to Glasgow and Bristol ahead of their round one clash with Munster in Thomond Park on 21 September will present an opportunity for Hansen.
"Mack is in full training, he has done a full pre-season with us," head coach Pete Wilkins said on Wednesday morning.
"We are happy with how he is tracking but we probably won’t use him against Sale.
"I don’t think that’s necessary at this point, but we’ll keep ramping him up, and he’ll definitely get pre-season minutes with a view to being ready for round one.
"He is tracking nicely, but we most likely won’t use him this weekend."
Fellow Ireland internationals Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham (above), who both went on the summer tour, are not expected to see any action until the start of October.
"They are just back, they have done a conditioning week," added Wilkins, whose side finished outside the play-off places last season and missed out on Champions Cup qualification.
"They had a delayed summer break after their return from the South Africa tour. They are into some running and fitness, and Finlay will start to integrate into rugby at the back end of this week, Bundee from the start of next week.
"Most of those guys who had a large chunk of minutes over the summer, you probably won’t see them until URC round three-ish.
"But the important thing is they are back, they are well, they are refreshed, and as I said, they will get up to speed on the rugby front pretty quickly."
The Westerners also welcomed back Josh Murphy, the back row who took a year out to finish his studies, while new signing Josh Ioane, the former Highlanders and Chiefs out-half, arrived two weeks ago.
"Josh Murphy, we know him really well, but it is like having a brand new signing, seeing him after a year away," added the 44-year-old of the former Leinster forward.
"He is high quality. I think his CV speaks for itself in terms of the amount of quality rugby he has played. We missed him last year, we missed what he brought to us in terms of the abrasiveness and in terms of the collective mindset.
"I am really delighted he is back. He obviously relished his year away with his doctoring, but at the same time, it has probably made him realise how lucky everyone is to have a career as a rugby player and to really make the most of that for as long as you possibly can.
"Josh Ioane has been with us for two weeks now. He is ramping nicely.
"There was a fair bit of conditioning work we had to get into him, obviously to get up to speed rugby-wise.
"But he is a really good guy. Again, he is a class operator, you can see that he has played at the very highest level of the southern hemisphere.
"He picked up our game and the nuances of it really quickly, which shows that he has got that experience of dropping in and out of representative programmes.
"He has got a high level of rugby intellect, I believe. And it’s going to be fascinating to see him and Jack [Carty] battle it out for the number 10 jersey.
"Obviously Sean Naughton is following closely behind after another really good Ireland U20s campaign, and JJ [Hanrahan] due back in the new year. So, we are lucky to have Josh, he is a good guy and he is settling well."
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