Town boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that Cole Skuse will miss Tuesday’s home game against Derby and that top scorer David McGoldrick is out for the season.
Skuse suffered a kick to the leg in the 3-1 home defeat to Wigan and was absent for the first time in the league since he joined the Blues last summer as Town won 2-0 at Brighton on Saturday.
McCarthy hopes the former Bristol City man will be fit for Nottingham Forest’s visit at the weekend: "He’s not fit. The best case scenario for Cole will be Saturday.
"Everyone else is OK, they’re all fit, all healthy. There might be a couple with tired legs but having won and got the three points certainly helps to cure that.
"They’re OK, we’ve not done anything with them, we won’t do anything until the game just to keep everything in their legs to play against a very good side who are full of vim and vigour at the moment.”
Anthony Wordsworth again seems set to replace Skuse, despite Tuesday’s game coming so soon after the match at Brighton, which was only the former Colchester man’s first league start of the season.
"He seems OK but he’s not going to tell me anything other than that, is he?” McCarthy added. "He’s not going to come in limping. He’ll be fine and if he does start and he runs out of gas, I’ll have some subs on the bench.
"It’s always a difficult one that, you think maybe [you should make a change], but players get by on adrenaline as well, they get going and they’re OK.”
The Town boss says Paul Taylor is in the squad but wouldn’t confirm whether the striker would return to the matchday 18 having been left out completely at Brighton: "He’s in the 22 whether he’s in the 18 remains to be seen. He’s available for selection.”
McCarthy confirmed that 16-goal top scorer David McGoldrick won’t play again during 2013/14 having suffered a partial tear to a medial knee ligament just over a month ago. There had previously been a slender hope that the 26-year-old might return in the very latter stages or if Town make the play-offs.
"He’s not going to be fit for any of the season," the Blues manager said. "He’s halfway, he’s got his brace on, he’s like the bionic man walking round with his brace. It is what it is. He’ll miss the rest of the season and just getting fit for the start of next season.”
Meanwhile, speaking prior to the addition of Manchester City winger Alex Henshall, McCarthy said there could be some movement in or out before the emergency loan window closes on Thursday: "Possibly.”
Regarding the players already out on loan, he says right-back Freddie Veseli has a week or so left of his spell with League Two Bury: "They stopped it for a week and I think they get a few more games out of him. It’s not up in time so he’s able to go anywhere else, so he’ll come back to us.”
McCarthy says he’s had varying reports regarding Veseli’s performances for the Shakers and Elliott Hewitt’s with League One Gillingham: "A mixed bag for both him and Elliott Hewitt. Elliott’s out learning his trade really and he’s done all right. Peter Taylor loves him there at Gillingham, he’s done well for him.
"A bit of a mixed bag, not every week they’ve been fabulous, but they’ve done OK the pair of them.”
As for Jack Marriott, who rejoined Skrill Premier Woking in January, he added: "Jack’s scored 11 goals, he’s done fine. He hasn’t scored for four, so he’s in the middle of a drought or maybe at the end of a drought, I don’t know.”