Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’ll assess the condition of midfielder Jay Tabb before considering a move into the loan market with five of his left-sided players currently under treatment. Tabb hurt his shoulder during last night’s 2-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Stevenage, while Aaron Cresswell (thigh), Tyrone Mings (knee), Anthony Wordsworth (calf) and Jack Doherty (ankle) have also suffered knocks.
McCarthy says his squad would be left very short if Tabb was sidelined and he would have to look at making loan additions: "I would have to. Let’s see who we’ve got first, but I would have to because we’d pretty depleted if we’d got him out as well.”
However, the Town manager says the former Reading man is confident that his problem isn't too serious: "Tabby, although he thinks he’s got away with it, we’ll see in the morning. He’s just jolted it, he hasn’t dislocated it.”
McCarthy says Cresswell is on his way back from the thigh problem which affected him throughout pre-season, but there’s less good news regarding some of the other injured players: "He’ll train on Thursday with a view to playing on Saturday. But Woody won’t be back and Tyrone’s probably out for a month.”
With so many of his left-sided players injured, McCarthy quipped: "I don’t know if any left-sided players will sign for me on loan, they’ll maybe think we’re jinxed.”
The Blues boss said he was particularly disappointed with his team's defending for Stevenage’s second goal last night, scored by debutant Jordan Burrow: "We just didn’t defend the second one.
"The penalty I can’t do anything about, I don’t know if it is one or not. The lads are chewing a little bit in there, but you’d expect them to be.
"The second one was a poor goal from us. For 45 minutes it was all right and then it all changes on a penalty.”
McCarthy didn't feel that the fringe players who came into the team made a solid case for their involvement at the weekend: "I can’t say they did.
"Having been beaten 2-0 at Stevenage, I doubt very much that the players who have come in are going to be knocking on my door suggesting they should be playing.”
After two defeats in the first two games, the Blues boss is keen to restore the pre-season positivity against one of his old clubs at the weekend: "We’ve got Millwall on Saturday, so if the enthusiasm’s going to be pricked then we’ve got to make sure whatever we have to do to heal it again we do it.
"I’m looking forward to the game, of course I am. I’d like to make sure we’ve got a few players back. Cressy will train on Thursday, as I say, but whether he’s fit enough or not I don’t know yet.
"It’ll be nice to play it and win it and have a week and recover a little bit. It will be another tough game because Millwall were beaten as well on Saturday.”