Dragons duo Ashton Hewitt and Ross Moriarty will make their long-awaited returns to the rugby field when Wasps head to Rodney Parade on Friday night for a pre-season encounter (7pm kick-off).
Speedster Hewitt, who has twice been selected for Wales squads only to be ruled out through injury, will make his first appearance since April 2021, having recovered from the serious knee damage which wiped out more than a year of his playing career. He required surgery on his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments after suffering the fateful fitness blow against Northampton in the European Challenge Cup. Almost 18 months on, he has been "itching to get back in", according to director of rugby Dean Ryan.
He said of the 27-year-old winger: "Ashton has spent a long time out and worked incredible hard to get back. It is almost 18 months and a long time off the field. He is itching to get back in. Sometimes he sets himself incredibly high standards and I want him to enjoy [Friday] because he has missed it for a long time. He is fully fit and desperate to get on the field – he doesn’t appear to have lost any pace!"
