Town have denied a claims of a bust-up between manager Roy Keane and defender Damien Delaney.
An exchange in training had been claimed to have developed into blows with the former QPR man told he wouldn’t play for the Blues again, but a club spokesman has dismissed the story out of hand: "Ipswich Town Football Club categorically refutes the malicious suggestion that an incident took place between the manager and Damien Delaney."
Meanwhile, a source close to Delaney has made a similar denial in the Irish papers: "Damien is aware of these rumours, the club chief executive has already been onto him about them.
"He utterly refutes any suggestion that a dispute with Keane escalated to the point that they had to be pulled apart. It’s a complete joke, there’s nothing to the story."
The Ireland international has been left out of the Blues’ 18 for the two games since he returned from his one-match ban for his red card at Norwich.
Speaking on Friday, prior to the visit to Preston, Keane explained his reasons for leaving his fellow Irishman out of his squad: "Damien was suspended for the West Brom game when the team kept a clean sheet and I thought played reasonably well. I didn’t think there was any reason to change it.
"Damo had a run out in the reserves in the week and he’ll have a chance of being involved on Saturday.”