Pep Guardiola will assess captain Vincent Kompany and midfielder Fabian Delph after the duo came in from the cold to start Manchester City's 2-1 Premier League defeat to Chelsea.
Kompany was making his first start in the top flight since November, while Delph also completed 90 minutes having been selected in a Premier League starting XI by Guardiola for the first time.
City welcome Hull City to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, their sights firmly trained upon securing a top-four spot after Chelsea extinguished any lingering title hopes in midweek.
Kompany and Delph both acquitted themselves well in central defence and central midfield respectively at Stamford Bridge but Guardiola is understandably wary of asking too much of men who have suffered wretched luck with injuries over the past two seasons.
"We are going to train this afternoon and see if people are okay," he told a pre-match news conference on Friday.
"Both of them played good. Fabian was excellent and maybe deserves more minutes than he had.
"Vincent, the problem was he was injured all the time and, of course, he was ready for the last two, three weeks.
"I am happy for both of them because they deserve to play. I am always happy when I can give minutes to players who haven't played too much. Their performance was outstanding.
"We have to evaluate it now with them, the physios. Of course, it's been a long time [since they played], especially Vincent.
"We cannot forget Fabian has had a lot of problems the last year here at Manchester City.
"When you are a long time without playing games and then you play at Stamford Bridge with this personality, it shows me a lot."
One man seemingly certain to be in the starting XI at the weekend is playmaker David Silva, who will make his 300th City appearance if selected.
The Spain international has been the side's creative fulcrum since being signed by Roberto Mancini from Valencia in 2010 and Guardiola is surprised his compatriot has not enjoyed greater recognition having won every major honour in the English game.
"He is a fantastic, fantastic player – fantastic, amazing," he said.
"I know he was never nominated for the best three players of the year here in England. He was nominated I think once in his career here as player of the month.
"I am a little bit surprised by that because he is an outstanding player. You cannot imagine how good he is. He is a top, top player and I am happy to enjoy him as a manager."
Guardiola is also full of admiration for Hull boss Marco Silva, who has dragged the Tigers out of the relegation zone and away from the seemingly hopeless situation he inherited when he succeeded Mike Phelan in January.
"I know this manager was in Greece [with Olympiacos] and we played in the Champions League when I was at Bayern Munich," he added.
"He is doing an outstanding job because they were absolutely at the bottom and he made great results.
"I like the way they play. I think they have players with a lot of talent in the way they want to play offensively. It's not just long balls, they play with a lot of quality."
