Boss Roy Keane hopes full-back Shane O’Connor will play the full 90 minutes for the reserves in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Millwall this afternoon. O’Connor has been out since early September with a torn hamstring suffered while away with the Republic of Ireland U21s.
Keane said: "Shane will hopefully get 90 minutes in the reserves. He needs a good run-out. It’s been disappointing that there’s been no game.
"Shane’s been doing really well in terms of his recovery but like a lot of the lads coming back from injury — Connor, Mark Kennedy — he needs minutes under his belt.”
Keane will also be looking for Luciano Civelli and Damien Delaney to play the full 90 minutes as they continue their comebacks from knee and thigh injuries respectively. Ronan Murray, Conor Hourihane and Reggie Lambe are also expected to be in the squad.
The Town boss says he will be giving the players who aren’t away on international duty some time off this week: "They’ll have a long weekend next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The reserves play on Tuesday and it’s the club golf day on Wednesday.
"It’ll be a standard week, but we’re giving them Friday, Saturday and Sunday off and then the following Monday we’ll start the preparation for the following game. Then the lads come back from international duty.”
Meanwhile, reports in the Midlands are again linking the Blues with West Brom left-back Joe Mattock.
Town are said to be ready to take the England U21 international on loan once he recovers from a thigh injury, although left-back appears to be an area of the team where the Blues are well covered with O’Connor and Kennedy recovering from their injuries and Darren O’Dea also likely to be available after the international break despite his knee problem.
Jaime Peters played in the role last week at Reading, while Tommy Smith and Damien Delaney have also operated in that position during Roy Keane’s time in charge. Town appear more likely to be looking for a right-back, although Keane said no loan moves were imminent towards the end of last week.