Hal Luscombe (right) has been capped 16 times by Wales

Worcester Warriors' Welsh international centre Hal Luscombe could finally make his debut in Saturday's European Challenge Cup game against Bourgoin.

Luscombe joined the Warriors in the summer, but has been on the sidelines following knee surgery.

Director of rugby Mike Ruddock told BBC Hereford and Worcester: "Hal is looking to figure and he should be in the 22.

"It's great news that we've got him in contention, but ideally we'd have liked him to have played in the A team."

"It would have been good for him to just ease his way back into it before we put him back into first-team duty," said Ruddock.

"But with all these injuries that we have at the moment, we are going to have to press him into service, probably from the bench."

The Warriors are also expected to hand a debut to fly-half Eoghan Hickey who has moved to Sixways on a six-week loan from London Irish.

Loki Crichton is the latest player to face an extended spell on the sidelines after an MRI scan revealed that his hell injury is worse that originally thought.

The Warriors may opt to rest a number of players with forwards Greg Rawlinson and Matt Mullen expected to miss out.

It's for us to lose, rather than for anyone else to win because we have got the three home games now Mike Ruddock

However Ruddock dismissed suggestions his squad rotation is an indication he is not taking the European Challenge Cup seriously and insists he is keen to go one better than last year when the Warriors were beaten by Bath in the final.

"It's for us to lose, rather than for anyone else to win because we have got the three home games now," said Ruddock.

"It would be great to get back here at Sixways and put in a big performance in front of our home fans and we've got the chance to do that on Saturday."

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