Dembele has been out with an ankle injury picked up in the first half of United’s draw at home to Derby County on October 22, while Sibley collected an ankle problem of his own at the beginning of November.

New U’s head coach Gary Rowett has worked with both players previously, at Birmingham City with Dembele last season, and with Sibley at Derby.

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Rowett said: “Both have trained, but I’m not quite sure how many days they’d trained previously, but have both for different reasons missed games.

“Both are coming back into the fold, and both are very talented players.

“Dembs gets people one v one and stands them up. He’s got that ability to go past people and he knows what I expect from within the rest of performance for the team.

Siriki Dembele on the ball earlier this season (Image: Mike Allen) “Sibs is the same, he’s got that little bit of X factor in the final third at times, like you saw for his goal earlier in the season.

“Both players perhaps haven’t played as much as maybe they’d like, but for different reasons.

“It’s up to me to give them that framework and that platform to go and show what they can do.

“Both of those players at some opportunity, whether that’s game one or game 10, an opportunity to show that.”