Harry Maguire and Phil Jones could return for Manchester United in their Premier League match at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Maguire has missed the last two games through injury and fellow centre-back Jones sat out the FA Cup third round victory over Villa with a quad problem.
Victor Lindelof returned for his first game in a month against Villa next to Raphael Varane, who has played next to three different defensive partners in the last two weeks.
United interim manager Ralf Rangnick said he was hopeful a few players would return at Villa, with Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo also absent on Monday evening through injury.
"Yes, today we had two centre-backs available - all the other ones were injured - so it's very important to have Rapha back again," Rangnick said. "Hopefully for the away game at Villa on Saturday we will also have a few other players available, including Harry as the centre-back, that will give us more options.
"Phil Jones will hopefully be fit again for the game on Saturday but today we only had two of them and I'm very happy Rapha is back again."
