Nathan Earle cannot wait to put his injury troubles behind him after the winger was named in the starting line-up for Harlequins’ trip to face Leicester Tigers this weekend.

The 26-year-old is one of two changes made to the team that started the dramatic 48-46 league win over Wasps at The Stoop last weekend, coming in for the injured Cadan Murley.

James Lang is also restored to the starting XV at inside centre as Luke Northmore switches from No.12 to outside centre, with Joe Marchant on the right wing and Tyrone Green at fullback.

And following a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Earle is looking forward to getting back on the pitch and helping his team secure their top four berth in the Premiership.

“It’s been a little while but I’m just excited to be back out with the boys, excited to be back playing Prem Rugby so hopefully I can stay fit this time,” said Earle.

“The injury kind of came right at our turn of fortunes so that’s never ideal.

“But watching the team go well is always exciting and coming back into it with the chance of play-off rugby if we keep competing at the high level is really exciting.

“Me and Marcus [Smith] get on really well, I call him ‘Young Smitty’, and I think we both identify with the fact that we both were born in Asian countries.

“We speak a lot about the culture that we grew up around, so our relationship is really good and I’m just excited for him, he’s playing with the shackles off.

“He’s playing arguably the best rugby of his career so far and he’s the best 10 in the country at the moment so more power to him and I hope he goes from strength to strength.”

Earle recently became a father for the first time and said it has been life changing for him, although he admits he has been fortunate with his son’s sleeping pattern.

“I’ve got pretty lucky that I’ve got a baby that sleeps at the moment so we’re kind of having to wake him up to do his feed etc, he’s not crying to get us up,” he said.

“He goes down pretty quickly, and I always explain to the guys who are already dads, it was like an epiphany moment as soon as he was born.

“Things that did seem important don’t seem important anymore. It just excites me that at some point in my career my son will be able to watch me play before I retire which is awesome.”

And the Hong Kong-born star, who previously played for Saracens, hopes his experience can also prove beneficial to his back three partnership with Marchant and Green against Leicester.

“Obviously Tyrone [Green] has been going really well and it’s nice to have Joe [Marchant] on the wing, I’ll be babysitting a bit as the elder statesman now,” he said.

“We know what we expect from Leicester, they have a really good kicking game, and it will definitely challenge us, but I’ve got all the faith in the other two.

“Joe is brilliant under the high ball; Tyrone has been playing brilliantly as well so I think we’re excited to show ourselves as a back three and see if we can improve on what’s been going on.

“The last two games have been won with the last play of the game. Ideally you don’t want to leave it to the last minute and we have spoken about turning the screw if we are ahead.”