Town are close to signing striker Frank Nouble from Wolves. The 21-year-old, who is set to sign a contract until the summer of 2014, has been at Portman Road for a medical this morning, a fee having been agreed.
The 6ft 3in tall Londoner began his career with Chelsea’s youth set-up before joining West Ham in 2009.
While with the Hammers, he spent spells on loan at West Brom, Swindon, Swansea, Barnsley, Charlton, Gillingham and Barnsley again.
England U17 and U19 international - who also qualifies for the Ivory Coast via his parents - made only six starts and 13 sub appearances while at Upton Park, scoring just the one senior goal.
In the summer he moved on a free transfer to Wolves, signing a two-year deal, but has made only two sub appearances in the Championship, in addition to one start, two games from the bench and one goal in the Capital One Cup.
Nouble would appear to be a direct replacement for former loanee Tyrone Barnett, whose spell from Peterborough was cut short by a knee injury, providing competition for Daryl Murphy.
Manager Mick McCarthy added two more strikers - Aaron Mclean and David McGoldrick - to his squad last week and on Saturday confirmed that he was still chasing ex-loanee DJ Campbell, who went back to QPR last week.
The Blues would now appear to have a surfeit of frontmen with Nathan Ellington having returned to the club yesterday after his loan from Scunthorpe and Murphy, Michael Chopra, Jason Scotland, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas - who McCarthy views as primarily a striker - Ronan Murray and the injured Paul Taylor already at Portman Road.