Glasgow assistant coach Nigel Carolan says the time has finally come to “unleash” former Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie for his Warriors debut.
The former Edinburgh flanker signed from French club Perpignan in the summer but has been sidelined for the opening months of the season because of ankle and Achilles tendon issues.
The 30-year-old, capped 63 times, is now back in full training and is expected to play in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Benetton in Treviso.
“He’s training fully. We feel he’s integrated into the systems now very well. And he’s itching to go,” said Carolan.
“It would be great if we get him involved this week, either starting or on the bench. It would be really positive to have him involved, especially ahead of Scotland’s Nations Cup in a couple of weeks.”
Ritchie was a pillar of the Edinburgh team for more than a decade before moving to the French Top 14 side.
Carolan believes patience will pay off for the Warriors with Ritchie, who has moved to Scotstoun on a two-year deal.
“I think it was important to get the timing right. We didn’t want to rush him,” the Irishman added.
“Obviously he had surgery over the summer so we didn’t really want to push him. He’s just moved to a new club and with all that going on, we felt the timing needed to be right.
“We could have involved him maybe last week but that was Ruwald van der Merwe’s time. So I think the time has now come to unleash Jamie Ritchie in a Glasgow Warriors shirt.”
Warriors are second in the URC table after three matches – behind Edinburgh – and will be favourite against second-bottom Benetton this weekend.
They finished top of the URC last season but were knocked out of the play-offs in the semi-finals by the Bulls and the arrivals of Ritchie and Van der Merwe – with Scotland back row Jack Dempsey departing – were part of an evolution of Franco Smith’s squad in the summer.