Scott Sio is set to make his first appearance of the season when struggling Gloucester visit Exeter Chiefs on Saturday afternoon, according to boss Rob Baxter.
Former Wallabies loosehead star Sio, 34, who has made 65 appearances since joining from the Brumbies in 2022, has been sidelined all season with a niggling knee injury.
And he was due to be on the bench for last weekend’s victory over Harlequins, but was pulled out at the last minute and replaced by Ethan Burger, who ended up playing 58 minutes after Will Goodrick-Clarke was injured.
Goodrick-Clarke is unlikely to be fit until after the upcoming block of Premiership Cup fixtures, which means that Sio’s return to action couldn’t have come at a better time.
“There were a couple of things that went on late in the week, just personal things. So his prep on getting ready just created some doubt on ‘is this guy absolutely ready, or is he still a little tight and sore,” said Baxter.
“That’s all that happened last week, and he has been in fully this week. It looks like he is a certainty for this week. Scott has not played loads, but he is a very experienced player.
“Internationals the quality of Scott are used to getting themselves ready for games. In hindsight, Ethan Burger getting all that game time last week is a great positive for us because he is likely to be involved again this weekend.
“I was really pleased with Ethan. He came on after 22 minutes and was our top ball carrier in the game with 16 carries, and they were good carries too. He did well in the scrum and the maul. I couldn’t have asked any more of him.”
Goodrick-Clarke came off against Quins after a bang on the shoulder, but Baxter says there appears to be no serious damage.
“Will came off early with a bang on his ace joint. To be fair, he has come in moving pretty well; everybody reacts a little bit different. It’s just really a pain management scenario for him.
“He could be there or thereabouts by the end of the week. We are just monitoring him day by day, but our thought process around it is that there is no reason why he shouldn’t be back post our Prem Cup block.
While Baxter points out that Khwezi Mona, who hasn’t played since getting injured playing for the Sharks in June 2024, is now nearing full fitness.
“He is up and in full training. We had to look after him a little bit when he first arrived because we didn’t want to throw him onto the field to get injured immediately after turning up.
“So we took our time with him. He just had a couple of little things. He had only just returned from an Achilles issue, so we wanted to take our time.
“He is fully training now, so if getting time in live scrums and live mauls and good training time. So we have got good cover at loosehead.”
