Midfielder or full-back Shane O’Connor was due back in training yesterday having been out of action since a bout of suspected appendicitis forced him out of the Republic of Ireland U21 squad almost a fortnight ago.
Boss Paul Jewell says O’Connor has had an interrupted season with his illness and a shoulder injury following on from an early season hamstring problem: "I think he might train today [Thursday], but he’s had appendicitis or suspected appendicitis and before that he’d dislocated his shoulder, so it’s been a bit stop-start for him this season.
"He went away with Ireland and the doctor sent him back here with suspected appendicitis, but they’ve given him some tablets and that’s sorted that out.”
Because of the illness and injury, the new Town manager hasn’t seen too much of the Cork-born youngster live but has been impressed when looking back at matches from earlier in the season: "I was watching a DVD of some games the other night and if it snowed every week, he’d be playing every week because he was great in the snow!"
O’Connor has another year on his Town contract but most of the younger professionals at the club have deals which come to an end in the summer — Luke Hyam, Troy Brown, Jamie Griffiths, Billy Clark, Reggie Lambe, Jack Ainsley, Tom Eastman, David Cawley, Ronan Murray, Ian McLoughlin and Conor Hourihane.
Jewell says the youngsters have done well during his time at Portman Road: "I was talking in the hotel with the staff last night and we were saying we’ve been really impressed with the young players.
"We’ve got to make decisions on them sooner rather than later, but they’ve shown a really good attitude.
"They played some great football in the reserve game on Wednesday and also at Didcot against Oxford last week. I know it’s reserve football, but the youngsters have been promising.”