Matt Holland, football's Mr Indestructible, has pulled out of the Ireland squad for their friendly with Croatia on Wednesday.
Holland, who hasn't missed a Town game since his transfer from Bournemouth in 1997, has acquired knee and ankle problems in pre-season.
The Town skipper has started writing his column in the Independent on Sunday. In this week's first piece he says that this last week before the new season is tricky: "This week is always hard. The work of pre-season is completed, the match discussions change from the theoretical to the real, and the heart starts to beat a little faster."
Hopfully Matt will be over his injury problems by next weekend, a few dousings of Brightlingsea water should do the trick.
His column can be found here: http://news.independent.co.uk/sport/football/comment/story.jsp?story=88252
Our old friend Francisco Gonzalez, Fran to his mates, from Deportivo La Coruña is said to have been seen having a stroll around Portman Road this week. He, apparently, is a £4 million striker looked on as a replacement for James Scowcroft. According to all previous reports he is a left winger, so we wouldn't be completely surprised if this story disappeared once again.
Meanwhile George Burley spent some of the weekend looking at his latest target, thought to be Italian or at least playing for an Italian club.