FORMER Scotland skipper John Barclay will bring down the curtain on his 10-month injury nightmare when he finally makes his Edinburgh debut on Friday night.
The back-rower has not played since rupturing his Achilles in his final game for Welsh outfit Scarlets in last season's Guinness PRO14 semi-final clash with Glasgow.
But the 71-time capped flanker will return to the Murrayfield stage he has graced so often with the national team when he makes his first appearance for Richard Cockerill's side - who he joined in the summer - against reigning league champions Leinster.
There is a further boost for the capital club ahead of their showdown with the Irish side with the news Barclay's Scotland team-mate Matt Scott will also make his own comeback from a five-month lay-off caused by a head injury suffered against Toulon back in October.
READ MORE: Robbie Nairn hopes to have staked a claim for Glasgow Warriors
Cockerill has named a starting XV that features 10 internationals - including Darcy Graham, Hamish Watson, Ben Toolis and WP Nel who will be on a high after playing key roles for Gregor Townsend's Dark Blues as they claimed an astonishing 38-38 Calcutta Cup draw at Twickenham.
And a repeat of the display they put in during a an explosive second-half fightback against Eddie Jones' England will be essential as Edinburgh look to re-ignite their play-off hopes after just one win in their last four PRO14 fixtures.
Cockerill said: "We need to be as strong as we can be because we've had some poor results where we've slipped up where we shouldn't have.
"That's put us in a situation where, with four league games to go, we're probably going to have to win all of them if we want to qualify for the play-offs.
"There's been a lot of disruption over the last two months because of the Six Nations, but it is now back to the bread and butter of the league and making sure we get it right tomorrow night.
READ MORE: Hogg and host of big-name players set to return to action for Glasgow Warriors
"It'll be good to have John Barclay back on the field and he can share his experience with the rest of the team.
"He's a fantastic player and his leadership around the group and his knowledge of the game is very, very good, and that could well be important for us in the run-in."
A revamped back-three sees Graham return to club action following last weekend's two-try performance in London.
The winger is joined by fullback Dougie Fife and wing Duhan van der Merwe, while Scott is partnered by James Johnstone in midfield.
Experienced scrum-half Henry Pyrgos captains the side, with Jaco van der Walt at stand-off.
Pierre Schoeman is named at loosehead prop and packs down alongside Scotland pairing Ross Ford and Nel, while Toolis is partnered by Fraser McKenzie in the second-row.
Barclay makes his debut at blindside flanker. Scotland star Watson starts at openside while Fijian international Bill Mata returns to the No.8 jersey.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here