All Blacks blindside flanker Liam Squire is set to make his first appearance of the season when the Highlanders host the Bulls in Dunedin on Friday.

Squire has been battling with injuries since the start of the year and was set to play for the Highlanders in March after recovering from a hip injury but tore a medial ligament which has kept him on the sidelines for the past 10 weeks.

He has recovered from that injury, however, and is showing all the usual signs of his being ready to play.

Highlanders assistant coach Mark Hammett is delighted that Squire could make his return to action this weekend.

“He is really excited and is giving everyone a lot of stick and that normally means he is in a pretty good space,” Hammett told the All Blacks’ official website.

“We know Liam is a game-changer, a guy we all like playing with. He is a guy who brings guys along with him.”

With Friday’s game and the one in Invercargill against the Waratahs on June 14, the formula for the Highlanders was simple: win.

Hammett said with seven points separating fifth from 13th on the ladder they were not out of the hunt and a win would keep them in the race on Friday.

“So that means a lot of us are desperate… the goal is to win the next two weeks but we have to break that down into how we can do that,” he added.

“We have already been talking about playing longer, going deeper for longer, with or without the ball.

“It means playing for longer, being in those spots where you have to go deep into yourself and the guy beside you. I’m 100 percent confident we can do that. That is how we are training.”