Boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that 17-year-old academy scholar Matt Clarke will make his senior debut and striker Jack Marriott his full Town debut in Tuesday’s Capital One Cup first round tie at Crawley (KO 7.45pm). The Blues manager looks set to field a much-changed and inexperienced side with 10 senior players sidelined or not risked due to niggles.
"Matt Clarke will make his debut,which is nice for a 17-year-old,” McCarthy confirmed. "He’s had a really good pre-season and he trains with the first team quite a lot and he copes with that, so I’m looking forward to seeing him.
"He’s starting at left-back, although he’s really a footballing centre-half. We’ve got young Ben Wyatt, who is a left-back, but Matt Clarke is front of him in terms of getting a game and I’m certain he’ll be comfortable there. He’s starting there.
"And there’ll be a number of them on the bench as well, Teddy Bishop and a number of others.”
McCarthy, who also confirmed that Marriott, who has previously made two sub appearances for the Town first team will start, says Jonny Parr and Paul Anderson will again be missing with groin and hamstring injuries respectively.
"Neither of those two will be fit, not for this one,” he said. "It was always going to be Reading for those two, we expect them to train on Thursday.”
As for the players who were involved at the weekend, the Town boss confirmed that several of them would miss out at the Broadfield Stadium: "Skusey has had a scan but I’m not sure of the outcome. He’s got a sore foot and there’s no chance I’m going to risk him if he’s not right.
"Luke Hyam had cramp, Tyrone had cramp and a sore back. David McGoldrick’s got a sore groin, Daryl Murphy got a kick on the calf, Tommy Smith’s got a sore groin which was sore last week. All of those won’t be risked at all.”
Stephen Hunt remains unavailable but McCarthy says the winger is making progress having been hampered by a calf problem throughout pre-season: "I spoke to him this morning when he came in and he’s progressing.
"He’s OK. It’s a deep muscle in the calf and it can be really troublesome as we've found out. He’s getting better.
"What’s nice about Hunty is that he’s fit, we saw last year when he came here. When he does come back it won’t take him long to get up to speed.”
Cameron Stewart remains sidelined with a broken jaw, while McCarthy says Balint Bajner has "tired legs” after Saturday’s games but seems likely to be amongst the subs.
Bartosz Bialkowski looks set to make his Town debut in goal, with Dean Gerken fit but rested, while Alex Henshall also seems likely to make his Blues bow.