Connacht have been boosted by the return to fitness of Ireland wing Mack Hansen ahead of Friday's BKT United Rugby Championship clash trip to Ulster.
The 25-year-old limped off in the province’s Investec Champions Cup defeat to Bordueux Begles on 8 December after aggravating the same foot injury that had kept him sidelined for six URC games after the World Cup.
The Westerners have lost their last four matches, including a 55-36 Investec Champions Cup reverse at Saracens on Saturday.
"It was the same part of the foot and it presented in the same way in terms of the symptoms," head coach Pete Wilkins told RTÉ Sport as his team prepares to take on Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday night (7.35pm).
"Fortunately, it wasn’t as serious as what he suffered at the World Cup.
"He was already up and rehab running at the end of last week, which was really positive, good news, it’s great for all us.
"Any of those sort of injuries where there’s not a big collision that you can put it down to but when somebody does pull up like that it can be a concern so it’s certainly a relief and he’s bouncing and ready to go."
Full-back Tiernan O’Halloran, meanwhile, won’t return until the end of January after injuring his foot against Leinster at the start of the month, while Oisin Dowling is targeting a return to action for the derby against Munster on New Year’s Day as he recovers from a shoulder issue.
"The good news for T is he didn’t need surgery but he’s progressing through it," said Wilkins.
"He’s got to be patient. Unfortunately, it’s going to be the New Year but we look forward to having him back."
Connacht have also lost two players from the defeat in London; back row Paul Boyle (above) will see a specialist for an eye injury, and wing Diarmuid Kilgallen has a hamstring injury. Both are ruled out for this week’s game.
Wilkins’ side, who sit eighth in the URC table, have conceded 173 points in their last four outings, including 25 tries.
Their tackle success rate in the four defeats have been 82% (Saracens), 86% (Bordeaux), 93% (Leinster) and 81% (Bulls).
"Our players practice their tackle technique every week," added Wilkins.
"For them to have those core skills, they’ve done that from their days as juniors coming through the academy and they still do it weekly now, we make sure that’s in the training plan.
"A key bit defensively is the work even before you get to the contact.
"Certainly for us when we are reviewing games, and reviewing the game at the weekend, you are looking at your set-up, your spacing, you are looking at the correct fold in terms of getting your numbers where you need them.
"If you get those things right you can be really aggressive and square off the line and the contacts tend to be more likely to go in your favour, whereas if you've got bodies in the wrong place and a bit of wastage defensively or you’re getting too tight then all of those collisions become more difficult.
"When we look at line breaks from the weekend against Saracens, yes, there’s contact areas in there but a large part of it is looking, 'did we set ourselves up for success at the front end?’
"That could be off the line from a ruck, it could be from a kick chase but we’re investing heavily in that as well."
