Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s not currently considering entering the loan market for a replacement for injured top scorer David McGoldrick. Frank Nouble appears to be the 16-goal frontman’s likely replacement alongside Daryl Murphy at Leicester on Saturday.
"I wonder sometimes what the point of having them here is if the first time I get an injury I go out and get a replacement?” McCarthy said.
"And I wonder who is going to loan me someone as good as David McGoldrick. Probably unlikely that, isn’t it?
"All the ones who have been back-up, who have been coming on as subs and travelling everywhere and are doing their jobs properly and are wanting to play, it’s their time to get an opportunity.
"And you give them the opportunity and if it doesn’t work, that’s when you decide to do something else.
"But where do you get somebody? Would I be loaning David McGoldrick out to anybody? You’re not going to get one of that ilk.”
He added: "It is a huge blow for me, for the team, for all of us, the club, for him because he’s had such a great season.
"I think he would have loved to have got to 20 goals, that would have been a great achievement for him and that’s not going to be.
"Now opportunity knocks for somebody else to stand up and be the hero. Because that’s what he’s been, he’s been our talisman.
"All the ones that have been thinking they should play every week, Tayls, Sylvan’s here now, Frank, they all want to play, opportunity knocks for one of them.”
McCarthy says he’s thought about playing one up front at the King Power Stadium but has decided to employ two strikers: "I went and had a look at Leicester last night against Nottingham Forest and that’s always a consideration. They’re a very good side.
"Nottingham Forest played one up front and were getting mullered for the first 20 minutes."
McCarthy is yet to decide which of his keepers he is going to play having been impressed with Scott Loach’s display last week, the former Watford man coming in at short notice when regular number one Dean Gerken reported in with a stiff neck.
"I think he deserves huge credit because it’s not always the case that when they’ve been out,” he said. "He’d not played a league game for six months apparently.
"He played exceptionally well. It doesn’t always work with players who have been out of the team. They have a bit of a sulk-up and don’t prepare properly for being left out, they’re on the subs’ bench.
"That’s not to their credit at all. And he obviously does. It’s difficult because there’s a great camaraderie between keepers and they have to work each other. He deserves great credit for the way he played.”
Meanwhile, he says he’d be happy for 21-year-old right-back Freddie Veseli to continue extend his loan at Bury when his current spell comes to an end after Saturday’s game with AFC Wimbledon.
"It’s up to [Bury manager] David Flitcroft. If he wants to keep him then, yes, of course, but I’ve not had that discussion.
"Unless someone else wants to take him because he’s only got another month [that he can spend on loan with Bury]. He can stay for another 33 days or whatever it is. Yes, he can stay.”