Gary Rowett hopes to have a full squad available to him when Burton Albion travel up the A38 to face his Derby County side at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday.


Darren Bent and Mason Bennett played their first minutes after long-term injuries with Darren Wassall’s Under-23s last Friday, whilst Bradley Johnson and Sam Winnall are expected to return to training on Thursday.

That means that the Rams could go into Saturday’s game with a clean bill of health for the first time this season.

Speaking to RamsTV, Rowett said: “It’s going to be an interesting one in terms of team selection, we’ve got Mason [Bennett] and Benty [Darren Bent] who have got some game-time and trained a little bit more, but we’ll have that debate on Friday because there’s another Under-23s game.

“Sam [Winnall] and Johnno [Bradley Johnson] will potentially train today, so we’ll have a lot more players available.”

Rowett named the same starting eleven for a third game in seven days when Ipswich Town came to Pride Park on Tuesday, and he believes that now might be the time to mix the side up.

He added: “After not making any changes on the good run, we might have to make a few but we don’t need to be too extreme, it’s just about tweaking to give some players the opportunity to show what they can do.

“We want every player in the building available and then I’ll take the difficult decision of who plays.”