“I’ve obviously had a bit of a setback with the shoulder injury in the last ten weeks, but the lads have all been really supportive during that time and have helped me a lot coming back in to the side,” said the Stockton-born speedster.

“Like most clubs in the Premiership London Irish seem to have a few flyers out wide, and they are renowned for having a quick back three, which we will have to contain if we’re to get anywhere down there.”

Elliott forms part of a Falcons team showing five changes from the 21-16 victory over Saracens, with Mark Mayerhofler and Joe Shaw forming a new centre pairing.

“It’s a setback for any team when you lose guys of the quality of Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait, but we’re lucky here that we have good players like Mark and Joe  ready to come in to the side, so the preparation will be exactly the same and we have total confidence in the lads coming in," he said.

With the return of Matt Burke a major plus as the north-easterners ready themselves for the weekend, Elliott said of the Aussie veteran: “From a winger’s point of view having Burkey in the team is fantastic, and he’s constantly in your ear telling you where to go and sensing what’s going to happen next.

“It’s a team game and we all communicate with each other, but you notice as you go along that when he says something during a game, he’s invariably right and you’d do well to listen to what he tells you.”

Assessing Sunday’s opponents, the former Sale and Rotherham man added: “London Irish are an extremely strong team at the moment, very tough to break down, so we’ll have to be on top form in both and attack and defence to get anything out of them, and we have a lot of respect for what they’ve done this season.

“We’ve been focusing on our own game more than watching tapes of them all the time, and as long as we get our own tactics right then we believe we stand a good chance of coming away with a result against one of the best teams in the league.

“I’ve played there a few times, and the Madejski Stadium is a place opposition teams look forward to going because the facilities are really good, and you get a sense that it isn’t a home stadium for them in the same way that Kingston Park is for us, because they only go there once a fortnight and they share it with a football club.

“I don’t mean that disrespectfully, and I’m sure there will be a good atmosphere down there with them trying to win it for their home supporters, but it’s a ground that a lot of guys like to play at.”

Finally, with the fleet-footed star put on the spot and asked his time for the 100 metres, he revealed: “I daren’t time it again, just in case I’m getting slower, but once upon a time it was under 11 seconds.

“To be honest it doesn’t mean a great deal in rugby, because you very rarely get to run for such a long distance or in a straight line, but I’ll stay away from the track anyway just in case my times start creeping up!”