Pat Lam looks set to bring Nathan Hughes back to Bristol Bears early to ease the injury situation in his backrow.
Bristol lost both their starting flankers to injuries early during the Bears’ 29-38 defeat to Harlequins on Sunday with Steven Luatua dislocating his wrist and Sam Jeffries hurting his knee in the act of scoring.
Former England number eight Hughes has not played for the Bears since January 1 when he started away at Exeter Chiefs and in January he joined derby rivals Bath Rugby on a loan deal.
The 22-cap international hit the ground running at the Rec as he was named man of the match on his debut, which ironically was a hard-fought victory against Harlequins, and has excelled in all four appearances since.
However, the 30-year-old has not played for two weeks, with the terms of his loan agreement meaning he was unable to play for Bath in their 29-27 derby victory over the Bears on March 5 and then the Blue, Black and Whites’ Premiership bye week falling this weekend.
Bristol host Bath again on Friday night, this time in the Premiership Rugby Cup, and Bears director of rugby Lam hinted an arrangement has been agreed upon to allow Hughes to play for Bath if scrum-half Max Green can play for his side.
The Bears are currently five scrum-halves down with Harry Randall away with England, Andy Uren and Tom Whiteley out with hamstring injuries, Toby Venner sidelined with a knee injury and Oscar Lennon suffering a calf issue.
Lam said: “We are looking at both Max being available and Nathan [Hughes] being available as well.
"Nathan is not too far from coming back after these two injuries.
“The most important thing is to have Nate playing, potentially he will be playing next week for either side.”
Lam does have options in the backrow with Dan Thomas, Fitz Harding, Jake Heenan and Chris Vui all fit while Mitch Eadie and James Dun both featured for Hartpury on Saturday in their penultimate RFU Championship fixture, losing 20-12 against Richmond.
