Pearson's men have made a solid start to life back in the top flight, picking up five points from their opening four games.
And the Leicester manager's options appear to have been bolstered further ahead of the visit of United on Sunday, with James potentially in line to face his boyhood club alongside Schmeichel, the son of former United legend Peter.
Pearson said: "It was always our intention to give him [James] around an hour rather than put him under too much stress.
"He trained all of last week and has had some pitch time now so with another week's training it’s possible he could come into contention [for the United game].
"It’s nice to have lots of options and certainly looking forward to the weekend’s game it’s beneficial for us to have as many players available as possible."
On Schmeichel, Pearson added: "He'll be increasing his workload in training this week and we'll see how he is, but there's a very strong possibility that he'll be available for the weekend."
