DEAN Ryan is set to call on his Wales World Cup stars for the Dragons' trip to Worcester on Saturday but lock Cory Hill will wait at least another week.

The Rodney Parade region head to Sixways (kick-off 3pm) with a perfect record in the European Challenge Cup courtesy of bonus-point wins against Castres and Enisei-STM.

If the Dragons win one of the two back-to-back fixtures against the Warriors then they will be in good shape to qualify for the knockout stages.

The head to the West Midlands on the back of a deflating 39-12 home hammering at the hands of Zebre but director of rugby Ryan is poised to give his team a shot in the arm with the re-introduction of internationals.

Last Saturday they were without six players who were on Wales duty against the Barbarians – hooker Elliot Dee, tighthead Leon Brown, back row forwards Ollie Griffiths and Aaron Wainwright, fly-half Sam Davies and wing Ashton Hewitt.

Back row forward Ross Moriarty was also in Test camp but didn't play after not training fully because of illness.

Ryan is set to add some Test power to his team but Hill, who hasn't played since February and had his World Cup dreams shattered by a leg fracture, won't be rushed.

"Cory probably won't be back this week. Possibly the week after but I don't want that to be a target, we will just see how he is," said former Worcester boss Ryan.

"The next two weeks will be about getting some of the guys back to where we need to be going into the festive derbies.

"It will be tough because we've not seen them – most internationals go back to systems they know at their club but we've got several guys that haven't been part of pre-season.

"We've got to work out over the next two weeks how we get them back into things in the right way."

Ryan pinpointed his side's struggle against Zebre's power game – "if you can't handle collisions and can't get over the gain line then you will have a tough night" – without their international players.

The director of rugby says there are no quick fixes with the Dragons' budget denying him the opportunity to solve the problem with recruitment.

"It was a tough physically but it just highlights what we have got to do, and we are not solving that in a short amount of time," he said.

"It's something we've got to do over the long-term. Regional rugby is a Welsh development growth model, it's not open recruitment where we go out and get 10 or 11 players.

"To get eight players in the Wales squad was great for us and what we have got to do is get more players up to speed.

"That's not happening over a short time and is certainly not happening through recruitment, so we've got to support them and keep working with them."

The Dragons suffered another injury blow in the back three against Zebre with wing Dafydd Howells given oxygen on the field after suffering a dislocated right elbow.

The previous weekend Jordan Williams ruptured knee ligaments against Enisei-STM in Krasnodar and will miss the rest of the season.

Hewitt's return from Wales duty is timely while wing Jared Rosser is close to a comeback after suffering a summer leg injury.