Scotland star set to come out of 'hibernation' as prospect of late Six Nations call-up addressed

Having featured heavily in the Autumn Nations Series - including a start against the USA and appearances off the bench against New Zealand and Tonga - Sykes was staking a real claim to be part of Scotland's Six Nations plans until injury struck.

The timing was particularly cruel for the 26-year-old, who was "peaking in the season", according to Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt, when he suffered a torn bicep in the Champions Cup victory over Toulon on December 7.

Eleven weeks on, set-piece specialist Sykes will make his comeback in the United Rugby Championship match against Scarlets at Hive Stadium on Friday night.

"I’ve had two and a half months sort of hibernating through the winter, so I’ve missed the worst of the weather," he said. "I’m back raring to go now.

"By hibernating I mean in the gym at Murrayfield. You’re actually in more when you’re injured. There’s boys in there now - they’re the real hard-working ones. You’ve got to pitch up every day and just keep working on yourself.

“It’s a good opportunity. I got to fix a couple of niggles I’d had from a long season last year, so to be honest it was a good sort of reset.”

Sykes initially thought he had suffered a dead arm on the night of his injury but it soon became apparent it was a lot worse.

“Yeah, it was my bicep tendon," he said. "It popped off about ten minutes before I came off. I thought I had a dead arm - it wasn’t a dead arm. I lifted Magnus and I soon realised it wasn’t that.

“I was a bit hopeful going in after the game, and then I was brought back down to earth straight after the scan. They’ve done a great job with it, so I’m happy with all that stuff.

“It’s been a while. It was frustrating. Obviously it’s a period you want to be involved in, but I’m raring to go until the end of the season now. We’ve got a decent block of games now and we can get our season back on track."

Born in Woodbridge, England, Sykes qualifies for Scotland through his Dundee-born grandmother.

He has six caps to his name but it might have been more had he been fit for the start of the Six Nations, having missed the defeat to Italy and the wins over England and Wales.

“It’s tough to sit on ‘mights’," Sykes reflected. "I suppose I’ve just got to make the most of this weekend - put my best foot forward then and let everything else take care of itself.

"You can’t really control that stuff, can you? It’s easy me saying ‘It could have been this’ or ‘I could have been involved in that’. I’m just looking ahead to what I’ve got in front of me, and I’ve got a decent run of games that I want to put a decent stamp on.

“The upper body is feeling a lot better than it was before. And definitely the legs as well - there’s a few more metres in the legs.”

Could a strong performance against Scarlets on Friday - a must-win match for Edinburgh if they are to get their play-off bid back on track - be enough to earn a Scotland call-up for the Six Nations matches to come against France and Ireland.

“I’m not, I’m not... I have no idea," Sykes replied. "It could be, it could not be. I just want to play well for Edinburgh. There’s no point getting held up on that, or ‘What about this? What about that?’

“You’ve got to deliver here, don’t you, if you want to be involved there. So I think that will be my main focus.”