Ruaidhri Higgins faces difficult balancing act as he manages return of star duo

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Skipper Patrick McEleney - who missed eight games due to an Achilles injury - and experienced centre half Mark Connolly - who was absent for three months with a hamstring tear - both made welcome returns to the starting line-up in the 0-0 draw with Shelbourne on Friday.

As much as it is a temptation to name them in the starting eleven for every game in what is an endurance test of a schedule, Higgins will be cautious not to risk asking too much of them, too soon.

Player welfare and their rehabilitation will be paramount to his team selection but his decisions will be also burdened with the highest level of expectation as Derry hunt down leaders Shamrock Rovers in the title race.

The City boss has rotated his squad for various reasons by either design or necessity and to varying degrees for every league match this season apart from one when he named an unchanged team for the 2-0 win over St Pat's at Brandywell on April 28th.

In his last three matches he's made four changes for the visit of UCD, five for the trip to Sligo and another five for Friday's home clash with Shelbourne.

It hasn't always had the desired effect but with the likes of McEleney and Connolly back from injury, will we start seeing a more settled team now that he is close to having all his best players available?

McEleney was taken off with cramp late in the second half while Connolly was showing signs of fatigue but managed to get his first 90 minutes under his belt against Shels.

It remains to be seen whether Higgins will risk starting the duo in Monday’s trip to Inchicore given the lack of recovery time.

"It's a tricky one to balance," said Higgins. "We need them on the pitch to get them up to speed but we also need results so it's trying to balance it and making sure that we're fresh but also get them up to speed because if we're going to do anything this year we'll need them.

"So it's a balancing act at the minute. Six or seven weeks ago we just needed to hang in there and stay in the mix and hopefully a month or so down the line, everyone is totally up to speed and we're in the hunt and we will only get stronger if that's the case.

"Dummigan has had a long term injury and that's his third start now which will be great for him. It's great for Mark and Patrick to get back on the pitch and we’ll get better off the back of it.”

Michael Duffy has recently returned from a lengthy injury lay-off and has made a huge impact over recent weeks.

Higgins believes McEleney and Connolly will also become much more influential in the coming weeks.

"Patrick got cramp,” he explained. “It's a hot night and he's playing in an area where you cover the most ground on the pitch.

"He hasn't played for a number of weeks so he did well to get to 75 or 80 minutes. If he hadn't of got cramp I wouldn't have taken him off.

"His influence grew in the second half. Michael Duffy's influence grew in the second half and we looked more of an attacking threat.

“We're not firing on all cylinders over the last couple of games, there's no doubt about that but I suppose the clean sheet steadies the ship.

"We can go down to Inchicore and have a right go. It’s a place we enjoy going to and we'll look forward to it."

Since John Daly took the reigns at Richmond Park, the Saints have been in resurgent form but Higgins insists his team have the belief and character to get a win.

“They're the form side in the league at the minute. John Daly's done great work since he's gone in there along with the players and the staff so credit to them.

"We know we're capable of going there and winning. We've got the players and we've got the character to go down there and win because we've done it and know how to do it down there. It's going to be an extremely difficult game but one we can win.”