Tighthead prop Julian White, though, steps aside with a neck injury, while Henry Tuilagi, Harry Ellis, Seru Rabeni, Tom Varndell and Tom Croft were not considered for selection due to injury.
"It is not a significant injury to Julian, but he suffered it during the Worcester game last week and it's still sore so we will go in without him this time," said head coach Pat Howard looking forward to the first East Midlands derby of the season.
"I remember some great clashes with Northampton as a player with Leicester," added Howard. "Leicester and Northampton is a great derby for the fans and for the players. The week after we were beaten at Bath, Northampton beat them fairly comfortably. They had a tough day at the office against Worcester but the scoreline against Dragons probably does not reflect the game. Northampton are an outfit I respect and it will be a tough challenge."
Dan Hipkiss comes in at centre, in place of Daryl Gibson who stands aside due to the one-foreigner rule in the Premiership, and Michael Holford gets his first start of the season at tighthead in place of White.
Leicester Tigers (v Northampton Saints, away, Saturday 3pm)
15 Sam Vesty
14 Geordan Murphy
13 Ollie Smith
12 Dan Hipkiss
11 Johne Murphy
10 Andy Goode
9 Scott Bemand
1 Marcos Ayerza
2 George Chuter
3 Michael Holford
4 Leo Cullen
5 Ben Kay
6 Louis Deacon
7 Lewis Moody
8 Martin Corry (capt)
Replacements:
16 David Young
17 James Buckland
18 Jordan Crane
19 Shane Jennings
20 Frank Murphy
21 Leon Lloyd
22 Paul Burke
