Midfielder Anthony Wordsworth could miss the rest of the season after cracking three vertebrae during the first half of Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Blackpool, the ex-Colchester man’s full debut. The 24-year-old is expected to come out of hospital today having been kept in after the match.
Manager Mick McCarthy says the Londoner won’t even be training for six weeks: "He’s not looking very good, he’s cracked three vertebrae in his back.
"He won’t require any surgery, it’ll heal, he’ll be fine. But I think it’ll be six weeks before he’s doing anything.”
Whether he’ll be back in the team this season, the Blues boss admitted he is as yet unsure: "We’ve to wait and see. It’ll depend how long it takes to heal, he won’t have any surgery. He should be coming out today.”
The Blues boss added: "I think he’s going to be a good player for us, he’s a talented footballer.
"I said [before the game] that Daryl Murphy will drift out wide left and if he does he’s good at it, he’ll get his cross in, so you make sure you get in the box.
"He said that the thought was ‘I better get in the box or the gaffer will kill me!’. I didn’t, but the keeper did.
"But he did it, he got in there and he just got turned by the defender and you could see when we were analysing the game yesterday on the video that he got a knee right in the bottom of his back.
"We didn’t know what it was at the time, he put his hand up and it looked like a serious one. Then when he came back on I thought he must just be winded, but he was in real pain then.”
While Wordsworth’s absence is a blow, McCarthy had had better news regarding other injured players.
"Murph’s all right, he’s fit, he did take a knock,” he said. "He put a really good shift in there because they do try and force you back with the full-backs, he kept having to track back. But he’s fit.”
Lee Martin has been out with a hamstring injury and Scott Loach with a sprained thumb but both are now available again: "Lee’s fine, Loachy’s trained, we’ll have to see whether he has any ill effects with his thumb after he’s trained, but he’s not reported any and he should be fine.”
The Blues boss hinted that Saturday’s goalscorer Michael Chopra could be in his thoughts for a start against Watford on Tuesday.