The Scotland international's last couple of seasons have been hampered by injury return to action would boost Glasgow's resources as they enter the business end of the campaign.

"Murphy is now ready to play," said Warriors head coach Franco Smith in The Scotsman. The difference now is we're at the back end of the competition and the amount of minutes that the other players have played in comparison to him is big for that specific role. He's a prop forward, it's different from any other role. The technique and the strength and the conditioning comes through playing as well.

"He's going to play this weekend for Hawks and we'll keep an eye out. But we don't want to throw him back in where he has not had the best rugby preparation and he gets hurt again. It's a delicate situation with him.

"Currently we have other people fulfilling that role and I'm of the opinion he's been pushed too much too early in his life already and that's where his chronic injuries come from. We've got to be patient with him. We want to make sure we don't go backwards again from an injury back to another injury."

Walker's last match was in July when he helped Scotland beat Uruguay 31-19 in Montevideo, winning his fifth cap. He played just twice for Glasgow Warriors last season.