Raith Rovers expect to have both Euan Murray and Keith Watson back for the crunch visit of Inverness Caley Thistle.
Murray was on the bench for last Saturday’s Scottish Cup defeat to Livingston but was an unused substitute.
He had been struggling with a groin complaint and, having sat out four matches in November and December because of his shoulder, has now missed the last two games.
Watson, meanwhile, has been sidelined for the last four months following knee surgery.
It was hoped the former Dundee United and Ross County stopper would also be available to face Livi last weekend.
But the 34-year-old suffered a calf issue after stepping up his bid for fitness with a run-out in a bounce game against Dundee.
Both have trained without any setbacks this week and are expected to strengthen manager Ian Murray’s defensive options for the encounter with Inverness.
Murray said: “We’ll be missing Ross Matthews still and Sam Stanton. But, apart from that, everybody’s fit, although they’re at different stages, obviously.
Ian Murray: ‘Duo have trained all week’
“Keith Watson has trained all week, which is really good.
“Euan Murray has trained again this week after just doing a little bit last week.
“He had only done really light stuff and it was a question of whether we risked it or not against Livingston.
“In terms of getting through the game, he probably would have had to come off after 60, 65 minutes, which wouldn’t have been ideal for us.
“And we just made a joint decision to leave it.
“But he’s had a really good week’s training behind him, so he’s ready now.”
He added: “Keith hadn’t trained properly because he felt a bit of tightness in his calf on Thursday.
“We thought that was just from the [bounce] game more than anything else. But it was just a wee bit of erring on the side of caution again.
“He hadn’t probably done enough training-wise and minutes-wise, considering the time he had been out, to involve him.
“But he’s trained really, really well this week. He has been out for a while, that’s the only concern.”
Raith Rovers light on defensive options
The Stark’s Park outfit switched to a back three against Livi, with full-backs Ross Millen and Liam Dick either side of midfielder Scott Brown.
With Dan O’Reilly having left for Partick Thistle earlier this month, Murray has been seriously short of recognised options at the heart of his defence.
And, with a new signing in that position also anticipated before the transfer deadline, he is thrilled with the improving injury situation.
He added: “It’s huge for us. Sometimes you don’t realise until they come back into the group and watch them in training.
“They’re proper centre-halves; they head and kick the ball and they organise.
“That’s what we’ve not had consistently now for a number of weeks.
“The boys who have filled in there have done well. We’ve not lost or drawn games because of the defence, we’ve just lost poor goals sometimes.
“Like every manager and club, we want our recognised centre-halves back in the team and back in the squad.
“Luckily now, getting to a really important stage, they’re all coming back.
“The challenge for us is how do we keep them fit and make sure they’re ticking over. There’s no real point in them playing one game and missing three.”
