Town will again be without striker David McGoldrick when they face Burton Albion at Portman Road on Saturday, while keeper Dean Gerken has been ruled out for the season having undergone hip surgery.

“Didzy’s got a sore knee, but he was pretty optimistic that it’s going to be better fairly quickly this morning,” manager Mick McCarthy said.

With Cole Skuse and Bartosz Bialkowski having agreed new terms, might the Irish international be the next to be offered a new contract?

“I don’t know, that’s for the club to decide, and for him, of course, what he wants to do,” McCarthy added.

“I think his family are back up in the Midlands. That doesn’t make it easy having that… not a commute because he lives down here, but he’s still got to go and see them.

"You can’t just stay down here and have your family up there when you’ve got young kids. So I guess it’s a bit of what he wants to do as well.”

Regarding Gerken he said: “We’ve lost Gerks now because he’s had an operation on his hip, he’s had to have it operated on.

“He’s going to be next season now but other than that Tristan Nydam is ill. I did have 20 fit players yesterday but Matt Byard, the physio, didn’t like me having 20 fit players for too long and insisted one of them was ill today. Poor old Tristan, has just got himself right and now he’s poorly.”

With Gerken out Michael Crowe, 22, is currently the second choice but McCarthy says he may look for a more experienced keeper if he needs one between now and the end of the season.

“He’s our second choice now but he’s not played a league game for us,” the Blues boss continued. “If anything happened to Bart, I think I’d have to get a keeper from somewhere.

“It depends, if it was one game or to come on as a sub it’s different. But I’m not sure if Bart got injured now and he couldn’t play for the rest of the season I’d have to look for somebody.

“I don’t think Michael’s going to go in and have 14 or 15 games. As much as he's been a back-up, it’s different when you’ve got to go in and play week in, week out, especially when we’ve had the level of Gerks and Bart playing in the nets.”

Midfielder Tom Adeyemi is making progress having broken down in the U23s last week: “Thankfully the injury wasn’t as bad as we thought when he pulled up.

"I guess he pulled up like that because he’s been so unlucky with the injuries. I couldn’t give you a timeframe on it but they’re far more optimistic than they were when he did it.”

Midfielders Emyr Huws, Teddy Bishop and Andre Dozzell are all out for the season with knee injuries.

Photo: TWTD

Radlett_blue added 16:54 - Feb 9 Gerken - yet another player who we have been patching up & now we've bitten the bullet. Full credit to Gerken though for having an injection, playing against Leeds when clearly not fit & keeping a clean sheet.
6

RobITFC added 16:58 - Feb 9 MM knows how to give Crowe confidence!!
15

hoppy added 17:22 - Feb 9 I was expecting that to read... “Didzy's got another post transfer window trauma problem in his leg, but he was pretty optimistic that it's going to be better in time for pre-season training, whether that's here or elsewhere” manager Mick McCarthy said.
5

alfromcol added 17:24 - Feb 9 Season's over why the hell not give Crowe a bit of experience if needed. He has been on the books for ages and has never has a game.
7

therein61 added 18:29 - Feb 9 So if Bart gets crocked he must be planning on putting the proper bloke non other than the premiership class no/8 in goal to prolong his career at least he won't have to run(which he can't)
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blue75 added 18:41 - Feb 9 Maybe if Crowe's need we should try him!! He could be the Nick Pope we let go!!!
4

ArnieM added 19:02 - Feb 9 McGoldrick STILL out injured? Now there's a surprise !!
6

Cookycrew added 20:29 - Feb 9 Felt really sorry for Crowe not getting at least 1 game the other week in the FA Cup against Sheff Utd.. why MM had to pick Bart for that one game when he rested many other 1st team players.
3

heathen66 added 22:56 - Feb 9 If Bart got injured, what is the worst that could happen ??? Give the lad a chance, in fact give him a chance anyway later in the season. Let us see what he can do for 3-4 games...you never know !!! Comments like that will give the lad no confidence at all.
4

ArnieM added 00:38 - Feb 10 Not giving Crowe his chance is just yet another prime example of why ITFC and more especially our young academy guns will not do well under Mick McCarthy. He does not use clear opportunities to blood these youngsters. They get sent out on loan , many of them never to be seen again.
4

harlingblue added 05:38 - Feb 10 Crowe not good enough, McGoldrick a great player until injury, both should leave the club, there are better players here. at the Academy.
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blue75 added 07:21 - Feb 10 harlingblue which youth keeper is better? Hope you don't think Wright's boy is as we'll never see him play after what he did in Manchester!!
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