Dowson delivers Saints injury update ahead of London Irish clash

The duo did not play in either of the pre-season games and didn't feature in the Gallagher Premiership opener at Sale Sharks last Sunday.

But Dowson said: "Dave Ribbans has been training this week.

"He's been out for a while - he had an operation over the summer - but he's coming back and he's in full training this week.

"He's looking good and it's nice to have him back out there."

As for prop Painter, Dowson said: "Ehren Painter's good.

"He should also be training fully this week."

Rory Hutchinson was another player on the 'not considered for selection' list ahead of the Sale game.

Hutchinson picked up an ankle injury while on tour with Scotland during the summer.

"He took a bit of an ankle sprain and he's slowly coming back from that," Dowson said.

"It's one of those things you don't want to keep irritating so it's hard to know quite where he's at."

Dowson has reiterated that Dan Biggar will be available to face London Irish at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday after welcoming his second child into the world.

"Dan Biggar's available," Dowson said on Tuesday afternoon.

"We're just waiting and seeing.

"He's not done much contact so we look at the GPS data, we talk to the medics and the S&C and decide at what point they're ready to go or if they're ready for a position on the bench or whatever."

Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam and Tommy Freeman will once again be missing this weekend, but they are getting set to return against Leicester Tigers on September 24.

"We've got guys coming back in this week and then the following week the England guys are available," Dowson said.

"I can't pick them (the England guys) this week. You have to apply for special dispensation.

"Courtney played a lot of minutes on tour, Lewis played a lot of minutes on tour, and we try to give those guys a proper off-season.

"We'd love to have them available to play against Irish but we trust the depth of the squad and we know that in the long term we need to look after those guys in terms of player welfare."