Boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that striker Paul Taylor will keep his place in the team when Town face Middlesbrough at the Riverside on Saturday. The Blues manager is also able to call on new loanee Jonny Williams, Luke Hyam and Frank Nouble after injuries but loanee Frazer Richardson is missing against his parent club, while academy second-year scholar Teddy Bishop could travel with the senior squad for the first time having impressed in the U21s on Tuesday.
McCarthy says Hyam is OK after the hamstring injury which has sidelined him since the Blackpool game: "He’s trained today, he’s fine, he looks good.
"The lads who have been away are fine. Jonny was in, Murph was in, Greeny was in this morning, trained.
"Christophe Berra hasn’t because he lands in Scotland sometime today, so there’s hardly any point in him coming down here to travel back up on the coach. That would be ridiculous, so he’s meeting us tomorrow. He’s fine.
"Frank’s trained today. He had a tight hamstring, he had to come off [last week], it wasn’t a precaution. But he did the right thing, he came off, rather than turning it into a strain or a pull.”
"Woody came off this morning with a sore back, so we’ll see how he is but everybody else is fine.”
One absentee will be right-back Frazer Richardson, who is on loan from Boro, and is unable to play against his parent club.
David McGoldrick is the only player sidelined long-term at present but has said he hopes to return from his medial knee ligament injury before the end of the season.
Loanee Williams missed last week’s victory over Birmingham with a hamstring problem but came on as a sub for Wales in their 3-1 victory over Iceland last night and McCarthy says he’s OK to be involved on Saturday: "I think so, I think he’s fine. I had a brief conversation with him.
"He went on for Gareth Bale and got a huge ovation. I’m not sure whether it was for him though! He’s been in and he’s been assessed, he’s fine.”
McCarthy confirmed that Taylor, who was most people’s man of the match having taken Williams’s role in the front three at the last minute last week, will start: "Paul Taylor’s playing.
Can Williams and Taylor play in the same team? "Turn up on Saturday and find out,” McCarthy added. "I’m sure they can, but turn up and see. Paul Taylor’s playing.”
Bishop
Perhaps joining the 20-man travelling party for the first time will be 17-year-old Teddy Bishop, who impressed in a central midfield role in Tuesday’s 1-0 U21s victory over QPR.
McCarthy, who watched Scotland’s U21s draw 2-2 with Hungary at Dundee United's Tannadice last night, says the Cambridge-based attacking midfielder, who has been with the club since the U8s, did very well and joined in with first team training today.
"He was excellent, he trained with us this morning when Woody went off. We went and got Teddy and told him to bring his kit as he might be travelling with us for Saturday.”