FORMER captain Jonathan Thomas will be making his Worcester Warriors return in Friday’s Greene King IPA Championship clash against Jersey at Sixways (7.45pm).

Back row forward Thomas, capped 67 times by Wales, has been out of action since suffering a serious calf injury in pre-season.

England full-back Chris Pennell is also poised to feature for Warriors, who are aiming for a seventh successive league victory.

Pennell skippered Warriors in their opening-day defeat at Bristol and has undergone an operation to cure a groin problem.

Warriors’ director of rugby Dean Ryan said: “Jonathan Thomas is back around this week so we have more options available to us.

“Things are getting higher and higher in terms of standard and that’s exactly what we want.

“Some of them are starting to come back and Chris Pennell should also be back.

“JT and Penns would expect to be in the 22 on Friday so we will get them some game-time hopefully.”

Ryan added: “I am delighted where we are at the moment and when the international boys come in I expect them to play like internationals and raise the standard.

“JT had a setback early on in his recovery and we don’t want to do that twice because the player gets frustrated.

“We have been cautious around him and we have not raced Penns back.

“We need our best players to be sharp and hungry and worried about not getting picked.”

Warriors won 22-10 at Plymouth Albion on Saturday night and Ryan said he was disappointed with his side’s second-half showing at Brickfields.

“From a half-time stand point, I thought we had put ourselves in a good position,” said Ryan.

“We left things out there in the second-half which weren’t relevant to the contest but were relevant to us getting better.

“We have taken the disappointment from that as a positive thing for us to learn from.”