John Souttar will return from his 10-week injury lay off for Hearts ' league and Scottish Cup Final double header with Rangers.
And defensive partner Craig Halkett is on course for the same comeback timeframe in a double Hampden boost for Robbie Neilson.
The Jambos boss admits he has a starting XI in mind for the end of season showpiece. But fitness levels over the next two games could still see him make changes.
Souttar - who will join the Ibrox cub in the summer - hasn’t kicked a ball for Hearts since limping off against Dundee United on March 5.
But he was on the bench in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Celtic and will again be among the subs against Motherwell tomorrow.
The positive news keeps coming for Jambos too with Andy Halliday, Michael Smith, Cammy Devlin and Aaron McEneff under consideration for minutes at Fir Park.
Neilson said: “We’ll have McEneff, Smith, Devlin, Halliday back and Souttar will be on the bench, he won’t play, but he’ll be available for Saturday.
“The hope for Halkett is Saturday too. I think that’s them all apart from Beni Baningime will be available for some sort of a game on Saturday.
“I’d rather it was three of four weeks ago because now they’ll go into these games not 100 per cent fit. That’s the dilemma we have. Where will they be fitness wise going into a massive game?
“They don’t need to prove themselves because they’ve been working hard. It’s more mentally for them to be able to say, ‘I’m ready’.
“I’ve played some minutes against Motherwell or against Rangers, so they can say ‘I’m ready to go’, as opposed to just rocking up at Hampden.”
Neilson admits he has absolutely no concerns about playing Souttar against his soon to be employers in the showpiece event at Hampden in 10 days’ time.
He said: “John is a Hearts player, and he wants to do well for Hearts. Whenever John plays he’ll give 100 per cent.
“The carrot for him is the cup final and Scotland in the summer, so he wants to play well and do that.”
Asked if he had his cup final XI picked in his mind, Neilson said: “To an extent, but I need to factor in who’s been playing, who’s not, who’s coming back from injury, fitness levels and all that.
“So, we’ll get through these two games and then we’ll sit down and make a decision on who is going to start at Hampden.
Neilson is focused on this evening’s trip to Fir Park first with Well desperate to strengthen their grip on a Euro spot.
He said: “We’ve not won down there for a while now, we got beat there earlier in the season, so we know when we turn up there it’s always tough.
“We’ll take a decent crowd, so we need to turn up. We can’t afford to turn up to any game and be 60 per cent or else we’ll get turned over.”
