The England international fly-half has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury in the opening fixture of the season at Northampton Saints.
Fellow internationals Geordan Murphy, Alesana Tuilagi, Ben Youngs and George Chuter are recalled after sitting out last weekend’s Aviva Premiership Rugby trip to Saracens, and back-rowers Thomas Waldrom and Ben Woods also return to the starting team.
Italy international Martin Castrogiovanni starts in the front row alongside Chuter and Boris Stankovich.
“We’ve been playing with some confidence and we’ve been playing some good rugby,” said Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
“Treviso have made a good start to their season and we know we have to be disciplined on and off the ball. Three sides have already gone over there and lost in the league, so we will treat them with huge respect.”
Leicester Tigers v Benetton Treviso (Saturday 2.35pm local time, Stadio Comunale Monigo)
15 Geordan Murphy (c)
14 Scott Hamilton
13 Dan Hipkiss
12 Matt Smith
11 Alesana Tuilagi
10 Toby Flood
9 Ben Youngs
1 Boris Stankovich
2 George Chuter
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Ed Slater
5 George Skivington
6 Tom Croft
7 Ben Woods
8 Thomas Waldrom
Replacements
16 Rob Hawkins
17 Julian White
18 Dan Cole
19 Steve Mafi
20 Craig Newby
21 James Grindal
22 Horacio Agulla
23 Billy Twelvetrees
Benetton Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Ludovico Nitoglia, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Andrew Vilk, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Fabio Semenzato; 1 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 5 Cornelius van Zyl, 6 Robert Barbieri, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 8 Paul Derbyshire,
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Franco Sbaraglini, 18 Pedro di Santo, 19 Enrico Pavanello, 20 Marco Filippucci, 21 Simon Picone, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Joe Maddock
