The Football League have refused Town special dispensation to bring in another keeper on loan in the wake of Richard Wright’s knee injury. Wright is out for four months having damaged ligaments at Cardiff on Sunday.
Football League rule 49.1 prevents a club from bringing in a keeper after the end of the emergency loan period - which was last Thursday - unless they are without any fit professional stoppers: "If all the professional goalkeepers at a club are certified by an independent medical practitioner as being unfit to play, a club may register... a further goalkeeper on loan."
Town currently have two professional glovesmen on the books, former Hartlepool man Arran Lee-Barrett (pictured), who is contracted to the club until January, and 18-year-old Ian McLoughlin, who signed an 18-month deal last January. Mirko Ranieri, 17, is on loan from Spurs to play for the U18s as McLoughlin is too old to play in the FA Youth Cup.
One way the Blues may find of circumventing the ban on signing a loan player is to track down a free agent keeper who was released in the summer and who hasn't been registered with another club since August. However, it's unlikely that a player in that position would be match sharp and would probably only be seen as back-up to Lee-Barrett.
Town will otherwise have to wait until January to add another keeper when former Bohemians man Brian Murphy officially joins the club on a Bosman. The 26-year-old is due at Portman Road next week to begin what Roy Keane has referred to as a "mini-pre-season”.
Meanwhile, Gareth McAuley says his Town future is now more certain after suggestions earlier on the season that his days with the Blues might be numbered.
The Northern Irishman revealed in September that his agent had been told that he could find another club but he says he was never really keen on making a move: "That is all behind me now. I'm happy here and want to kick-on with my football.
"A move may have looked in the balance three months ago but I would not have welcomed it. We have a stronger squad than when I first arrived in the summer of 2008.
"I discovered later that it appeared a different picture was coming through than what was actually happening. That's football, and how it works.”
Photo: ITFC