WORCESTER Warriors’ director of rugby Dean Ryan has opened talks with players he wants to be involved at Sixways next season.

Ryan is speaking to those who are out of contract in the summer and hopes to make announcements on new deals before the end of the year.

Warriors are second in the Greene King IPA Championship and pushing for an immediate return to the Premiership.

“We have not got a huge amount of players out of contract this year, like last season, so we are looking at talking to those who are and, as always, we are looking to enhance the squad,” said Ryan.

“We have always talked about travelling with the majority of this squad because that’s the opportunity we sold to them — to come here and grow.

“But we won’t stay static. If somebody doesn’t grow, doesn’t keep moving or is not improving, we will look to enhance the squad.”

Warriors face Jersey at Sixways tomorrow (7.45pm) and will be aiming for a seventh successive league win. It will be the first time the sides have met in a competitive fixture.

England full-back Chris Pennell and former Wales international Jonathan Thomas are set to be included in Warriors’ squad after injury.

Ryan revealed the club would not be playing Ryan Mills every week ‘because we want to make sure he’s at the centre of everything we do post-Christmas’. Mills has played only twice this season since undergoing knee surgery.

But scrum-half Jonny Arr has been ruled out after taking a bang on the head in Warriors’ 22-10 triumph at Plymouth Albion last weekend.

“Jonny Arr has recovered but he won’t recover in time for this weekend due to the concussion protocol,” said Ryan.

“It’s a six-day protocol and if you are not 100 per cent on Sunday morning you miss the next week.

“He won’t be involved which is a shame because we want to see Jonny play and create a contest because he’s a different player to Charlie Mulchrone.”

Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier (JB), who replaced Arr towards the end of first-half at Plymouth, had a tough time at Brickfields as Warriors were forced to defend. He is likely to get another chance.

“We have seen JB in the ‘A’ League and the British and Irish Cup when things are a bit faster and more fluid and suddenly the game at Plymouth was purely about game management,” said Ryan.

“JB has an opportunity to learn from this and understand why Jonny is good at what he does and why he can hold a team in the right places.

“When you are at JB’s stage in your career you are desperate to impress. He will get another go this week.”