Derby have several players nursing injuries ahead of the visit of Hull City in Friday night's Championship clash at Pride Park Stadium.
Defenders Mark O'Brien (cramp and illness) and Gareth Roberts (calf), midfielders Will Hughes (ankle) and Craig Bryson (knee), and striker Conor Sammon (calf) all finished last weekend's victory at Bristol City in some discomfort.
The Rams have been easing the walking wounded through the week but Bryson is more of a concern and may not be risked against the Tigers.
James O'Connor can fill in at centre-back for O'Brien and that is one of the reasons why he did not play for the Development squad on Monday afternoon.
With Jake Buxton out for up to eight weeks with medial knee ligament damage, the Rams also recalled central defender Valentin Gjokaj from his loan spell at Carlisle this week and the teenager will provide back up over the Christmas period.
Alex Bruce will miss out for Hull after their appeal against his red card last week against Huddersfield proved unsuccessful.
Bruce was sent off for violent conduct following an altercation with Huddersfield's Alan Lee after the final whistle and so either Paul McShane or Abdoulaye Faye will step in.
Hull will also be without David Stockdale following the goalkeeper's return to parent club Fulham.
Stockdale, 27, has started in all five of the Tigers' games in place of Ben Amos since arriving at the KC Stadium on loan in November, but has been recalled by the Londoners.
Manager Steve Bruce must decide whether to recall Amos or hand a debut to Swiss goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic.
An SFA judicial panel did not add to the Northern Irishman's touchline ban after deciding a warning would suffice following his dismissal against Hibernian last month.
Lomas was found guilty of misconduct by "failing to behave in a responsible manner as an occupant of the technical area by kicking a water bottle carrier, causing water bottles to land in the stand".
Lomas had acted in frustration when Nigel Hasselbaink missed a late penalty in his side's 1-0 home defeat on November 28.
The former West Ham captain had faced seeing his touchline ban double to a total of 16 matches, but he will be back in the dugout in January.
Lomas was hit with a six-match touchline ban earlier this month after being sent to the stand during his side's 1-1 draw at Celtic Park, which also sparked a further two-match punishment which had been suspended after he labelled Ross County midfielder Richard Brittain a cheat.
Lomas has already served three matches and is due to return to the technical area when Celtic visit McDiarmid Park on January 26.
The Irn-Bru Third Division meeting between the two clubs, which was originally set to take place at Borough Briggs on November 25, was postponed after Elgin sold too many tickets for the match.
Tatters was subsequently charged with breaching a disciplinary rule for "Not acting in the best interests of Association Football by knowingly distributing tickets... in excess of the maximum capacity of the ground at which the match was scheduled to be played."
He admitted the rule breach at a disciplinary hearing today, where a ?5,000 fine was imposed, with ?1,000 payable within 30 days and ?4,000 suspended for the rest of the season.
Elgin have already been fined ?25,000 by the Scottish Football League for the blunder.
The re-arranged fixture takes place on Saturday and, speaking earlier today, Rangers boss Ally McCoist said: "It's fish-and-chip paper as far as I'm concerned now.
"We have played them since and we want to move on and we certainly will move on.
"I would expect the SFA to look at it and take it for what it's worth and it looks nothing more than a genuine mistake to me."
