Manager Mick McCarthy says he has planned for striker David McGoldrick’s absence from the final five games of the season. The on-loan Nottingham Forest man’s 93-day loan was up after Saturday’s win at Derby but, under the terms of the agreement made between the clubs in January, will remain training with the Blues, who will continue to pay his wages for the rest of the season.
McCarthy said: "I knew, it’s no surprise, it might be to you and everybody else, but it wasn’t to me so I planned for it.”
Aside from McGoldrick, the Town manager has Michael Chopra, Frank Nouble, Daryl Murphy, Aaron Mclean and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas amongst his attacking options.
The Blues boss says that given the restrictions put on McGoldrick's loan - 93 days was the longest he could sign for after his window to window spell with Coventry earlier in the season - he weighed up whether the 25-year-old should be unavailable now or earlier in his time with Town.
He says the situation didn't affect his decision on whether he ought to make the signing: "I thought we might as well take him because you know what happens if you don’t take him, someone else comes in and takes him.
"It was either missing five games at the start of the loan or five at the end and I thought that that’s bonkers, we might as well take him, because if we don’t take him somebody else will come in and take him.
"We’ve an agreement to keep him. Forest didn’t want him, they were releasing him at the end of his contract and we’ve got an agreement to keep him, he loves it here and I fully expect him to stay.”
McCarthy was evidently happy to have kept the details of the deal from the media, presumably to ward off other interested parties: "It’s not always wise to tell you guys everything.
"I know you want to know everything and generally you find out most things. Wasn’t it lovely that nobody found out?
"It’s like telling you the team. I’m not going to tell the team ever, unless I decide one day we’ve played the same team three or four games and that that’s it, so come and beat us. I’m just not going to do it. You find out 99% of the stuff, I reckon.”
McCarthy reiterated that McGoldrick is set to sign a two-year deal on July 1st — unless Town are relegated — when his contract at Forest is up: "That’s the plan.”