Worcestershire will give a fitness test to skipper Daryl Mitchell before finalising their side for tomorrow's LV = County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire at New Road.
Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury when batting during Tuesday evening's Royal London One-Day Cup match with Surrey at the Kia Oval and missed yesterday's home 50 over game with Gloucestershire.
The 31-year-old, a pivotal figure for Worcestershire in all formats of the game, last missed a game through injury four years ago.
Alex Gidman is included in the squad for the first time since suffering concussion in the first meeting between the sides at Trent Bridge in late June.
The former Gloucestershire batsman was struck on the helmet by a Ben Hilfenhaus bouncer, retired injured and did not bat in the second innings. Since his return to fitness, he has been playing second team cricket.
The 34-year-old has experienced a challenging first season at New Road with one half century against Somerset although he has made a positive impact on the dressing room and been praised for his willingness to offer words of advice by several young players.
He was also brought in to be another experienced figure on the pitch in a young team and stood alongside Mitchell at first slip until his concussion setback.
Gidman was also captain at Gloucestershire and led his new county in early season warm-up games when Mitchell was either rested or away as part of the MCC squad for the match against the Champion County in Dubai.
Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes said: "Alex is a very proud man. He's had a good career in county cricket and he certainly doesn't want it to stop. He wants to make sure he scores runs and contributes to the team's success.
"He is a terrific team man and since he has been here, his words of wisdom have been fantastic with plenty of support for the batting group but, with all our players on the staff, he is very well respected.
"It is such a shame his form has been the way it has at the start of the season because you know the sort of runs he scored last year, plenty of them for Gloucestershire, and he is very capable of having a very good burst of cricket from now until the end of the season."
Worcestershire (from):
Oliver
D'Oliveira
Fell
Clarke
Gidman
Whiteley
Cox
Leach
Shantry
Ajmal
Morris
Barnard
Mitchell (fitness test)
