Ipswich Town manager Gary O'Neil has revealed that both Jaden Philogene and Azor Matuswia are back in full training after recovering from injuries.
Dutch midfielder Matusiwa was named Supporters' Player of the Year after playing a key role in last season's Championship promotion campaign, but he immediately underwent thigh surgery and hasn't played since.
Winger Philogene, who scored a collection of eye-catching goals from the left, hasn't featured at the start of this campaign after picking up an ankle injury in the latter stages of pre-season.
"We have everyone back in full training now apart from Jack Taylor (knee)," said O'Neil.
"Azor and Jadon are both back fully training with the group.
"We've had a tough pre-season, some tough games, a cup game in the middle, so to go to Crystal Palace with basically a fully fit squad is a testament to the work that's been done by the players to get themselves in good shape and by the medical and fitness team."
Matusiwa and Philogene now face a battle to get back in the team given Sasa Lukic, Exequiel Palacios and Daizen Maeda have all been added this summer.
"Injuries can be annoying like that," said O'Neil. "Sometimes you can lose some momentum and you have to play catch up a little bit.
"Especially for Jaden. Annoyingly, once he came back after a little hamstring issue, which slowed down his pre-season, he then picked up an innocuous kick on his ankle and it set him back again.
"It's been a frustrating one to not have Jaden around it, but he's looked up to speed this week. He's been very, very impressive in training. Fitness-wise, he's in a good spot. If we decided to start him tomorrow, it would be no problem.
"He'd be able to start the game, whether he'd get through the whole 90 without some fatigue towards the end, I'm not sure, but the fitness staff and everyone has cleared him to start. So that's good news. He gives us extra competition on that side.
"Azor will obviously be a little bit longer before he's available to start football matches, but he's ready for minutes now. We can start to get him back in and around matchday squads.
"It's important for the group because as much as it's great to sign a load of new players and try and help raise the level, the ones that have been here a while and the ones that know the inner workings and the fabrics of the club are very, very important.
"We need to keep that connection to what has been a very successful few years."
With a near fully fit squad, O'Neil will have to make some tough decisions as to who to leave out of his 20-man matchday squad. Sindre Walle Egeli, Chuba Akpom and Anis Mehmeti were among the those who didn't make the cut for last week's 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool.
"It's great," stressed O'Neil. "I don't want it any other way. I'm more than happy to have them difficult conversations with people. They're never personal.
"The players understand, hopefully. I speak to all of them individually, let them know what's going on.
"We want everyone fit. We want all the good players on the pitch. But that does mean, of course, that there's going to be disappointment for certain players. But they know that we need all 27 to help us get where we need to get this season.
"The lads that maybe aren't involved this weekend will get minutes on Tuesday against Arsenal (in the Carabao Cup). We'll need to change the team up a bit.
"Then it just takes an injury or a change of form or something I see in training to go from not playing so much to back in the starting XI.
"It's really important that they all understand that how I value the players is not based on how many minutes they play. People might think, 'Oh, Dara (O'Shea) has played every minute, so he's more important than Waltz (Christian Walton)' That's not the case.
"It's how are you for the group. How much do you help the group around what we're trying to be this year? Darnell Furlong I've not used anywhere near as much as I want to. That's just circumstance and the way it is at the moment.
"Hopefully, Darns understands that I love him to bits. He's a massively important part of what we're trying to do this year."
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