Carlos Cuellar and James Collins are both out of the weekend clash with West Ham - but caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald hopes to have Gabby Agbonlahor and Curtis Davies available for the campaign opener.
Cuellar [hamstring] and Collins [calf] will not recover in time for Saturday's curtain-raiser against the Hammers but Davies [knee] and Agbonlahor [hamstring] have returned to training this week in a bid to be available.
Boss MacDonald said: "Carlos is still not outside running because of the hamstring injury he picked up. He's getting there but he won't be ready for Saturday.
"Curtis and Gabby are both joining in. How far down the line they are, I'll have to assess over the next couple of days.
"James will return to training later this week. He won't be available for the weekend though.
"We have injuries but you have to deal with them. Let's see what we can do with what we've got.
"There are no other injury concerns.
"You always get little niggles - with the hard grind of pre-season - but I am confident whatever side we put out will compete with West Ham on Saturday."
MacDonald is also eager to see his international stars return from their respective midweek games injury-free.
He added: "Let's see what happens with the players who come back from international games.
"It was nice for Marc [Albrighton] to play for the under-21s but what was good for us was the fact he only played 19 minutes.
"We just have to hope [injuries to others].
"In terms of amount of games, those players who play at international level are used to it. They play European games, Premier League games and international games so they don't get much of a break once the season starts.
"But their bodies should be used to that now. We are more worried about the injuries."
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