Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues will manage Teddy Bishop and David McGoldrick sensibly this season, the pair having missed much of the last campaign due to injury.
Bishop played only four games at the end of 2015/16 due to a troublesome hamstring injury, while McGoldrick, having suffered unrelated fitness problems in the previous two seasons, tore his hamstring in December and only returned to action in April.
McCarthy says the duo were OK at the end of pre-season, despite McGoldrick suffering a minor hip flexor problem which saw him miss the first few friendlies.
"They’ve both come through fine,” he said. "Teddy came off at half-time on Saturday [against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise] and he was tired, his calves were sore.
"Didzy’s been great, he’s trained really well. But we do manage them sensibly, try to give them the right amount of time off a rest and recovery time.
"But as we know, Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday, the league’s relentless. We’ll look after them and try and get the best out of them as always.”
He believes the pair can add the sort of sparkle which was missing all too often last season.
"I hope so, we know Didzy brings it,” the Town boss added. "There’s no doubt about that, and Bish does, there’s no doubt about that either, and, of course, we missed them.
"If Murph can get to his goalscoring form. The thought of a World Cup appearance in two years’ time can inspire him to get 27 goals.
"That’s what he’s after, that’s what he’s got his sights set on, he wants to be in the qualifiers. That’s great news for me.
"Conor Grant’s scored goals at Doncaster. We want to get Bish in the goals, we’d like to get some midfield players in the goals. Having good players available to play is never a hardship, is it?”
Speaking to the media on Thursday Murphy praised new signing Grant Ward’s crossing in training.
"What’s he trying to say, we didn’t cross it last year? Was it our fault he only got 10 goals? I’ll have a word with him!" McCarthy joked.
"We always want balls in the box, we want quality balls in the box. It’s easy just to put crosses in.
"I’ve had that with players where they’ve said they’ve put 10 crosses in. But did we score off any of them? Did anybody get on the end of them?
"Where did they end up? Did they go into the keeper’s hands, did they go behind the goal. These stats, eight crosses, but where did they end up? Did anybody get on the end of them? No, because they were nowhere near anybody.
"We want to put balls in the box and that’s always been the way with my teams. We play 4-4-2 predominantly so that’s about crosses and shots, 4-4-2.”