Daniel Farke needs no convincing how crucial Alex Tettey and Tom Trybull are to Norwich City's Championship prospects.
City's central midfield duo were reunited for the first time in three months in the 2-0 Boxing Day win over Birmingham City.
Farke revealed afterwards he had resisted the urge to fast-track both into his starting plans after long-term injuries disrupted their impressive double act.
'We would have preferred to have them available for the whole season. They were brilliant in our decent run, with 10 unbeaten,' he said.
'Then we had to do without Alex for something like 10 weeks and Tom for six weeks.
'When they returned to training, even though they are experienced lads, it is not like one training session and away you go, you are ready and back in your rhythm.
'Now they have been back in training two or three weeks and this is the right moment to bring them back.
'To be fair to the other lads, Harrison Reed was pretty solid in the last few games, Mario Vrancic is much improved and has some momentum in his game.
'We have many options now in this area of the pitch.
'For Alex and Tom they give us a good defensive balance and that was quite important in a type of game like Birmingham.
'It is important I trust my players. With guys like Alex and Tom you are tempted to keep playing them, but we have to be smart in these next two games.'
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Farke's safety first policy enabled Grant Hanley to remain on the bench at St Andrews, after suffering a knee injury in the pre-festive defeat to Brentford at Carrow Road.
The City chief predicts another tough test on Saturday at struggling Burton.
'We were a bit worried after the Brentford game but it was just a swollen knee,' he said. 'If we had needed him he would have been unable to play, but we didn't want to take the risk and in the centre back positions
'I thought Timm Klose and Christoph Zimmermann did well. They were also the guys who played when we had that clean sheet record.
'We have several good players and several good options and that helps in this pretty busy period.
'We face another opponent who will be highly-motivated and who needs the points for the relegation fight.'
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