Connacht look set to be close to full strength for this Friday's BKT United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Ulster in Belfast, with Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen available for selection.
The pair missed the Round 18 defeat to Glasgow Warriors due to illness, but director of rugby Andy Friend has confirmed the pair are training fully and on course to play.
Gavin Thornbury, Conor Fitzgerald, Sean Masterson, Oisin McCormack and Shane Bolton remain on the long-term injury list, but the Connacht coach is working with an otherwise full squad, with 41 players training this week and available.
With director of rugby Andy Friend set to depart at the end of this season, Friday night's game at Kingspan Stadium could be the Australian's final match in charge after five seasons.
And he admits it's arguably the most important week the team has had since he arrived at the Sportsground in the summer of 2018.
"It's certainly right up there. I remember our first year we had a similar quarter-final against Ulster, and that was a big week too," he said.
"We've had some big weeks, big moments, but if we live in the present, this is definitely a huge week for us and probably the most important."
While Connacht closed out the URC regular season with a 29-27 defeat to Glasgow, their seventh-place finish sees them return to the play-offs, while it should also be enough for them to qualify for the Champions Cup next season unless the Cell C Sharks cause a major shock by winning the URC.
Ulster won both regular season meetings between the sides this season, including a one-sided 36-10 victory on the opening night back in September.
However, Friend [above] says Connacht are far improved from the group that started the season with four defeats from their opening five games.
"That certainly wasn't one of our better performances," he added.
"They [Ulster] were very good that night, they got on top of us in most areas of the field and most areas of the game. We had the return here around Christmas and they got on top of us again.
"I think we're a very different rugby team now. We've adjusted some things within our attack, we've adjusted things within our defence. I think our scrum continues to be a real weapon for us, our lineout and our lineout attack, and maul have come on and continue to grow throughout the course of the year.
"We're a very different team, even to the one that played the on the 23rd of December.
"I think there's probably more pressure on them than there is on us. They're at home, the finished second on the ladder, we finished seventh on the ladder, they've beaten us twice already this season. There's probably a weight of expectation with their fans and them thinking 'this is another chance for us to win', whereas we're going up there with nothing to lose and everything gain out of it.
"Most importantly, the way that our game's built during the course of the season, I know we have elements of our game in attack and defence which can cause them problems. We have to make sure we deliver that."
Watch the BKT URC quarter-finals, Leinster v Sharks (Saturday, 5pm) and Glasgow Warriors v Munster (Saturday, 7.35pm), on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
Follow a live blog of Ulster v Connacht (Friday, 7.35pm) or listen to live commentary on Game On on RTÉ 2fm.
