Returning loan keeper Stephen Henderson is delighted to be back at Portman Road, having signed a loan until the end of the season prior to yesterday’s deadline. The West Ham keeper looks likely to start when Middlesbrough are in Suffolk on Saturday afternoon.
Henderson told the club site: "It was a bit of a mental day yesterday but fortunately it all got done in the end and I’m delighted to be back here.
"I spoke to the manager here and he told me he was keen for me to come back and I wanted to come back.
"I had a word with Sam Allardyce as well. Sam knows that I want to go out and play games and I’m grateful to West Ham for giving me the opportunity to do that at Ipswich.
"I know I had some tough times at the start of my first spell here when we let in five and six. I looked at those games to see what went wrong from my end and coming through that period has made me mentally stronger.”
The Irishman, whose loan deal includes a 24-hour recall clause, says he gets on well with fellow keepers Scott Loach and Arran Lee-Barrett: "It’s good to be back working on the training ground again with Scott and Arran. They are great lads.
"We’re competing for only one place in the team. That’s the hard part of being a goalkeeper but you need that competition at any club.
"Scott was fully behind me when I was in the team and he knows I’ll be supporting him if he gets the nod."