By Graham Bean

Copyright scotsman

Darcy Graham is on course to make his return from injury early in the new United Rugby Championship campaign, with Edinburgh pencilling in the second week of the season for his comeback. The Scotland winger injured his ankle in July while making his debut for the British and Irish Lions in Australia during the win over a First Nations and Pasifika XV. The match was only 16 minutes old when Graham limped off in what was a real hammer blow for the player who had been left out of Andy Farrell’s original Lions squad and then won a call-up ahead of the Test series. Graham, who at least had the consolation of scoring a try on his Lions debut, is now working hard on his rehabilitation. Edinburgh open their URC campaign against Zebre in Parma on September 27 and then host Ulster at Hive Stadium on October 3. “He’s making big improvements every day and we’re looking at probably round two to be realistic,” said Sean Everitt, the Edinburgh head coach. “We’ve just got to see how his rehabilitation goes. Sometimes with these injuries, you do have setbacks, but fingers crossed he hasn’t had anything up until this stage, so we are hopeful for round one or two, but it’ll be in the first two weeks.” Graham has had a rough time of it with injuries in recent seasons and Everitt conceded the Lions setback was hard to take for the player who had been in outstanding form for his club last season. “It’s actually heartbreaking, to be quite honest with you, because I could just imagine the hurt that he had, first of all by not being selected after finishing off so strongly in the URC and then getting the call up and being probably one of the best players on the field in only 15 minutes,” said Everitt. “And then your tour comes to an end which was really disappointing for him. “But he’s been through a lot of adversity before, and he’s got a lot of resilience, so I’m sure that he’ll get over that and want to prove a point again because that’s just the nature of the guy. He loves being on the field.” Edinburgh return to action on Friday with a pre-season friendly against Ulster in Belfast but the match will come too soon for Everitt’s other Lions representatives who only returned to training this week. Neither Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman were involved in the Test matches against Australia but Everitt believes both will have learned plenty from their experiences on the tour. The same applies to Ewan Ashman, the Edinburgh hooker, who received a late call-up and made a brief appearance off the bench against the First Nations and Pasifika XV. “[Duhan] would have been disappointed in not getting a Test opportunity,” said the coach. “Everyone strives to play in a Test match but there’s also a lot to learn out of that. You’ve got to take the learnings from when things don’t go your way to become better. And being the true professional that he is and how he’s bounced back from several disappointments over his life and his career, we know that he’ll be back and giving his best for Edinburgh and for Scotland.” Van der Merwe still ended the tour as the Lions’ top try scorer with five in five games. Schoeman, who also played five times in non-Test games, will also benefit from the experience, said Everitt. “Working together with guys like Andrew Porter and Ellis Genge, he would have learned so much and he would have become a better player now, and that’s good for us,” added the coach. “And I’m hoping that Ashy [Ewan Ashman], Darcy, Duhan and Pierre all come back better players and impart that knowledge that they learned from their fellow players as well as the coaches over there.” Edinburgh will be without prop Boan Venter for the start of the season because of his ongoing involvement with South Africa in the Rugby Championship which is not scheduled to finish until October 4. They also have concerns around the hooker position. Dylan Richardson, who joined the club in the summer from the Sharks, has injured his back and is out until early October. Paddy Harrison also has a back injury, sustained on Scotland’s summer tour, and is not due back until mid-September. Edinburgh confirmed that centre Mosese Tuipulotu has undergone successful surgery on the knee injury he sustained against Connacht in May and is expected to return to training in December.