Derby County host Leeds United in the Championship on Wednesday.
Derby County can return to the Championship’s automatic places with a win against Leeds United on Wednesday – provided Ipswich Town do them a favour and beat Cardiff City.
Derby suffered defeat in their last outing at Sheffield Wednesday eight days ago, a fixture for which Gary Rowett made six changes.
And the Rams boss could make a similar number of alterations for Leeds’ visit, with his side also looking to quell murmurings of another post-January collapse.
Full-backs Andre Wisdom and Marcus Olsson are among those likely to return at the expense of Chris Baird and Craig Forsyth, whose lack of pace could struggle against an energetic Leeds attack, while the fit-again George Thorne could challenge Joe Ledley and ex-White Bradley Johnson for a place alongside Tom Huddlestone in central midfield.
Rowett may also feel inclined to shuffle his options up front, after last week’s failures in front of goal – in which case any of Cameron Jerome, Tom Lawrence, Ikechi Anya and Kasey Palmer will be primed for recalls.
Derby are, however, without Sam Winnall – a former Leeds target and the scorer of both the Rams’ goals at Elland Road last October – who had surgery to repair a damaged anterior cruciate ligament earlier this month.
Here’s how Derby could look against Paul Heckingbottom’s team…
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