Raith Rovers could welcome back the talismanic Sam Stanton for their clash with Hamilton Accies after receiving good news on two other key players.
Stanton has been forced to sit out the last two matches due to a hamstring issue.
It was something which also kept the 30-year-old sidelined for six weeks earlier in the campaign.
A further groin complaint means the midfielder has made just ten appearances this season out of a possible 19.
The midfielder was regarded as one of the best players in the Championship last term and his absence has been keenly felt by the Stark’s Park side.
Of the nine games he has sat out, Rovers have won just one.
He could make a return to the squad for the trip to Lanarkshire, however, with Jack Hamilton and Lewis Stevenson definitely fit after being substituted with head knocks against Morton last weekend.
“Sam’s close, yes,” manager Neill Collins told Courier Sport. “So Sam comes into our thoughts this week.
“Jack and Lewis should both be okay. Both have trained all week, which has been good, and Lewis just had a black eye after the Morton game.
“Jack had stitches, so it’s just something that you hope that he doesn’t get banged on again. But he’ll be fine.”
‘Trying to address those areas’
Last Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Morton was the first home defeat for Collins since his appointment in September.
However, Rovers have lost four out of the five away games so far during the new manager’s tenure.
What is certain is they cannot afford to lose another goal after just five minutes as they have done against Morton and in the preceding 1-1 draw with Partick Thistle.
“We’ve been pretty good, generally, in setting a good tone,” said Collins of his team’s starts to games. “But we’ve lost two goals in the first five minutes in the past two weeks.
“You could see that there was just a little bit of a lack of edge to the game from us last weekend and we got punished.
“That’s something that is well within our control and I thought the team did fantastic to come back.
“But Morton heavily punished us with three goals.
“Again, that’s something that we need to look at – why are we not capitalising on games where we’re far and away the stronger team.
“So this week we’ve been looking at trying to address those areas.”
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