Academy striker Caolan Lavery is likely to be out of action for only a fortnight with the knee injury which saw him stretchered off after just eight minutes of Thursday’s 3-2 Youth Cup defeat to Peterborough at Portman Road.
Boss Roy Keane says the Northern Ireland U21 international’s early exit was a big blow to the Blues’ U18s: "He just tweaked his knee, nothing too serious. He was a big loss to the young kids. He should be OK in a couple of weeks.”
The Town manager felt the youngsters were under par against Posh, although the visitors fielded a side with a larger number of second year scholars, while the Blues’ academy’s best player Connor Wickham wouldn’t have been involved even if he hadn't been injured.
Keane said: "They need to do better. Credit to Peterborough, they played well. In defence of them there were a lot of first years and sometimes when you play youth football you can tell that. There’s a big difference in a year.
"For the younger players, it’s a lesson to be learned. If you gift goals like that at any level, you pay for it. They had a go at the end but it was too little, too late and the academy will be disappointed with that.”
Overall though, Keane says the academy’s main priority is developing players to come into his first team squad: "We look at the bigger picture and as long as some of these younger boys progress we’ll be happy.
"Last year’s youth team did OK and four of them ended up getting involved in the first team this year. Ultimately we’ll be pleased if we get the same sort of numbers through in future years.”
Meanwhile, U18s keeper Cody Cropper was withdrawn from the US U20 squad playing at the Torneo de las Americas in Kennesaw, Georgia to play for Town last night.