PARS defender Rhys Breen looks set to return to training next week as James McPake admits he's pleased to have greater selection headaches.

Centre back Breen, 24, has played just 11 times this season and has been absent since the Fife derby defeat at home to Raith Rovers, on January 2, with a knee problem.

He is, however, set to step up his recovery as McPake prepares to welcome back fellow defender, Sam Fisher, and midfielder, Andrew Tod, ahead of tonight's showdown with Championship leaders Dundee United.

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Captain Kyle Benedictus returned from a thigh injury, which had kept him out since late December, at Raith Rovers on Saturday, whilst Matty Todd and Kane Ritchie-Hosler have also returned to action recently.

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"Unless something happens between now and Sunday, Breeny will train from Sunday onwards," McPake commented.

"He's now just doing very end stage stuff, and he's doing wee bits and pieces.

"Kano (Chris Kane), we'll see if we've got him for Friday. If not, we'll be hopeful for the following week. Then it just leaves Aaron (Comrie) and Craig (Wighton) that are the two long-term ones. Everyone else is good.

"I think Matty Todd's now at a good level of fitness. Kane's (Ritchie-Hosler) had 45 minutes and a 90 minutes, so he's looking excellent, and hopefully with having the break and no midweek game, that's cleared (Ewan) Otoo up and Benedictus. It was good we didn't need to go Saturday Tuesday with him as well, so we've been able to take care of him because I thought he was excellent at the weekend.

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"It wouldn't have been too beneficial for him having a game so quick midweek. Then, the reserve game (on Tuesday, a Reserve Cup win over Dundee United), Joe (Chalmers) got minutes, Michael (O'Halloran) got minutes, Brad (Holmes), Lewis (McCann), and Lewis just wanted to play. He's had a lot of minutes but I think Lewis was a bit frustrated in terms of he's not feeling the way he was at the start of the season.

"Credit to him. He wanted to go and play in the game, and I thought he did well in the game. The rest were just a chance to give them some minutes, and it was great that they did that.

"You go up to the game and in terms of the attitude, the attitude you see from Joe Chalmers, Michael O'Halloran, senior players, that want to go and play in the reserves just to keep themselves at a level because they know they're going to be needed between now and the end of the season.

"Whereas, at certain times, you can see players sulk and not want to play in the reserves. We would never force them. You can be that dictator and say no, you're going to play in it, but we give them the option.

"It's never a test, but they went up and I thought they were excellent helping the younger ones in the game as well.

"Everybody I think now, other than Chris Kane and Breeny, is at a really good level in terms of minutes as well. Touch wood, we get a wee run now between now and the end of the season, injuries stay away for that, and we can see what this squad's really like when we've got most of them fit."

When asked if he was pleased to see more of his players regaining fitness, McPake continued: "It's so much better.

"People keep saying about the headaches of leaving players out, or leaving players not in the squad, but I'm over the moon with that. The headache before has been filling a bench, or looking at a team and going 'where can we change it', or knowing players are running on empty, not being able to make a change, and hoping and praying that they don't get an injury just because you've not got anybody else to put on.

"I think that was seen on Saturday. Ewan Otoo's been carrying groin pain probably since the Inverness game, but he's so important to us we want him on the pitch for as long as we can. A month ago, we wouldn't have been able to make any changes, and then you're not helping with the risk as much as we could on Saturday.

"Now we're in a position where players are at a level, or we feel they're at risk of injury, we've got adequete cover there, or different types of players, that can come on and still affect the team and help the team.

"I'm certainly pleased they're coming back."