Blonds might have more fun in some walks of life, but not in an Edinburgh training camp.

Having taken an extended break over the summer after suffering concussion against Leinster in April, Dave Denton admits now that he was in no condition for the "brutal" pre-season bootcamp. Two days in, he paid the price with the hamstring injury that has kept him out of action until now.

Given their side's mixed fortunes over the past two months, Edinburgh fans will be delighted to see Denton take his place on the replacements bench for the club's European Challenge Cup clash with Lyon at BT Murrayfield tonight. They will be more delighted still if he gets his backside off the thing, and their pleasure will undoubtedly be shared by Scotland coach Vern Cotter, who left the No.8 out of his Test squad earlier this week, but is likely to call in Denton if he is satisfied the player is back near his best.

However, Cotter will not rush the strapping forward back, having told him he will have no involvement in the opening match of the autumn series, against Argentina on November 8. A more likely target for his return would be the following weekend's meeting with the All Blacks, and Denton's excitement about that prospect was almost palpable as he considered the issue yesterday.

"You don't need to knock on Vern's door," said Denton when asked if he had been pressing his case with the national coach. "He's around a lot and very active at Murrayfield. Obviously, getting back into the Scotland squad is huge; playing for my country is the biggest thing I can do.

"That's a big goal for me, but at the moment I'm coming off the bench for Edinburgh, probably for 30 or 40 minutes. If I can get a good shift in there then I can start looking towards the New Zealand game, just showing I'm available and playing well.

"I've spoken with Vern a lot. I've not worked with him, but I have been in and around camps and he's someone I'm very excited about working with. He seems to encourage the brand of rugby I like to play."

Denton suffered his concussion in Edinburgh's final match of the PRO12 season. Initially, he expected to be out for just a couple of weeks, but when it became clear he was struggling to be ready for Scotland's summer tour to North America, Argentina and South Africa, he was basically told to take things easy for 10 weeks. It was, he explained, his longest break from training since he was in his teens, and he lost a lot of his fitness along the way. "It has been well documented that the pre-season was one of the toughest we've ever had," he said. "My body just wasn't ready for it, and it showed. But another month with Johan Pretorius [Edinburgh's fitness coach] has done me the word of good."

Denton was Scottish rugby's golden child when he made his international breakthrough in 2012, winning the man-of-the-match award in his very first Test. However, he then suffered a serious dose of second-season syndrome in 2012-13, before returning to something closer to his best in the last Six Nations.

However, time out of the game has reminded him that he now has some serious rivals for his Scotland shirt, and another emerging soon as Glasgow's Josh Strauss will qualify on residency grounds just before the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Denton said: "It's going to keep me pushing forward. Johnnie [Beattie] is playing well, Ryan Wilson is just back from injury and Adam Ashe played really well for Glasgow at the weekend too. You get the best out of players when they've got competition. You don't want to be sitting back and assuming you're in a settled team. You need to be pushed."

After all their travails of the past couple of seasons, Edinburgh find themselves in the slightly unusual position of going for a third straight win, and the highly unusual position of seeking back-to-back victories over two French sides.

Coach Alan Solomons has been robbed of the services of club captain Mike Coman, who suffered an ankle injury in last weekend's stunning win against Bordeaux-Begles. However, as he had newly appointed Scotland skipper Grant Gilchrist on hand to take over the leadership role, the loss of Coman is just about bearable.

"I think he's a fantastic player," said Solomons of Gilchrist. "He leads by example and he's an intelligent guy. He's got the respect of the players, so he's got a very bright future."