Keeper Dean Gerken says Jonny Williams has made a massive impact at the club since arriving from Crystal Palace on an initial one-month loan.
Manager Mick McCarthy is hopeful the deal can be extended through to the end of the season and the Town players are keeping their fingers crossed that the Welsh international midfielder will be around for a while yet.
Gerken said: "We saw Jonny’s quality straight away in training and it was a shame he picked up an injury and wasn’t able to play in the game against Birmingham.
"He sees things and does things on the pitch and he’s been a great asset to us, especially as we’re without David McGoldrick. I think Jonny is like David in that he can give us that something else, a little bit of brilliance, like the way he laid on our second goal at Brighton for Daryl Murphy.
"The boy’s a bit special and he has been raved about for the last couple of years at Palace. For whatever reason he hasn’t got his chance there but that has been a bonus for us.”
Meanwhile, Gerken believes he is benefiting from a lengthy run of appearances after being out in the cold at previous club Bristol City, who released him last summer.
He added: "This has been my first season as a proper first team player for a couple of years. I had about three years at Bristol when I wasn’t playing week in, week out.
"I’ve been happy with my form and I know that I can kick on and do better next year. At the moment I’m just concentrating on keeping my place in the team and keeping us as high up the league as possible.”
All the Town players indulged in a cryotherapy session at the training ground yesterday in an effort to recharge their batteries ahead of tonight’s visit of Derby and Saturday’s clash with Forest.
Gerken laughed: "If you imagine one of these big meat freezers, that’s what it’s like only a bit smaller. I don’t know the ins and outs of it but it does work.
"We go in at a temperature of minus 40 for three minutes, take a 15-minute break and then go back for a further three minutes.
"It’s a mobile unit that goes all over the country. I hear there are women rugby players who spend even longer in there — good luck to them.
"But the Premier League clubs are all having them installed at their training ground because they know the benefit of using them. We’ll probably have done about a dozen sessions by the end of the season.”