Highland head coach Davie Carson believes the return of captain Andrew Findlater will be crucial to his side’s promotion bid.
Findlater has been sidelined since November with a shoulder injury, but after working his way back to fitness will play in tomorrow’s home match against Dalziel.
The Inverness club has slipped nine points behind leaders St Boswells, but still has a game in hand.
Carson knows the coming weeks will determine Highland’s hopes of winning back-to-back promotions and expects flanker Findlater to play a pivotal role in the run-in to the end of the season.
Carson said: “Andrew is probably about 95% fit so we’re going to play him at inside centre to ease him back into it. He’s a good ball carrier.
“It was frustrating he missed so many games, but his return is massive for us. At training this week, he was telling the players now we are into the last third of the season, they all have to be fit and look after themselves so we can kick on.
“We’re at the stage where we can’t afford to lose any more games, but the players are working really hard trying to get things right.
“We know we need to win and it would be a good way to start at home on Saturday.”
Highland has won only one of its last four games but having not played since the 20-17 defeat against RHC on January 21, Carson says his players are eager to get back to winning ways against ninth-placed Dalziel.
He added: “We’ve had a few blips, but we haven’t turned into a bad team overnight.
“It’s our first year in this league, and there’s still plenty of rugby to be played.
“The players are so committed and nobody has thrown in the towel. Hopefully we can put into practice what we’ve been doing in the last two or three weeks in training, that would give us a bit of confidence.
“We had some good sessions over Christmas, and since then we’ve won one and lost one.”
