Gavin Henson is set for a return to Ospreys colours next season © Getty Images

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Gavin Henson is set to end his rugby exile and return to action with the Ospreys next season.

The 28-year-old injury-plagued star is finalising his plans to restart his career 18 months after his last match for the Welsh region. Capped 31 times by Wales, Henson has been on unpaid lead leave from the Ospreys this season amidst speculation that he would retire from the game but he has now signalled his intent to return to rugby's frontline a year out from the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

"Gavin has been honest with me all along,' Ospreys' chairman Mike Cuddy told the Daily Mail. "He has told me he will be back next season and playing before the end of the year. All the injuries, especially the prolonged ones over his groin and Achilles tendon, got him down. He took a break and now he's feeling all the better for it."

Henson has told the Ospreys that he hopes to be fully match fit before the end of the year with reports that he may be loaned out to English Championship side London Welsh as part of a long-term deal between the two sides.

Henson, whose engagement to singer Charlotte Church was announced last week, has not played since limping out of the Ospreys' Anglo-Welsh Cup semi-final against Gloucester just over a year ago and has claimed just 15 caps in the last five years due to a succession of groin, hernia, calf, hand, Achilles tendon and ankle-ligament injuries. Henson has also admitted that his desire to be with his young family was a major factor in his sabbatical.

"Injuries got me down. I wanted to concentrate on being a good father as well," he told The Western Mail. "I was not here and when I was I was thinking about the game coming up and I started getting conscious of that.

"I thought I needed to make this work first. I have not even been missing rugby until recently. So the decision is for Charlotte to pursue her career for the time being and I will follow that until I think I can get back into rugby without it conflicting with everything. Hopefully that will be in the next year."

More recently, the 2001 IRB Young Player of the year has been keeping fit whilst filming the reality TV show 71 Degrees North in Norway where he is one of 12 celebrities competing in gruelling challenges.

However, the Ospreys have refused to be drawn on the issue of his return with a spokesman telling the BBC, "Having investigated and discussed the issue, unfortunately there is nothing to add to any comments made already. As far as we are concerned as an organisation, the situation remains unchanged as to what it has been since last summer that Gavin is on indefinite unpaid leave. And until we have formal contact confirming anything then it would be incorrect for the organisation to comment."