Boss Mick McCarthy says he hadn’t been actively looking for loan additions to his squad when Jonny Williams became available last week following Crystal Palace’s Capital One Cup exit to Newcastle.
"I haven’t been looking, I’m not telling lies, but Jonny was always one [I was interested in]," the Town boss said.
"He’s somebody who can keep hold of the ball, somebody who can drag you up the pitch with his ability, somebody who can get a freekick, a corner, a penalty. It’s invaluable, that.”
The Blues boss played down the chances of Williams rejoining when quizzed on Saturday - "I wasn’t going to tell you, was I?” - but pointed out that he didn’t entirely rule it out.
"I did say on Saturday that if someone wants to stick him in a car and bring him in on Monday morning then I’ll take him,” he recollected. "And they did, and that was always the case.
"If we can get out of him what we did the last time, if he can contribute what he did the last time, we’ll be delighted.”
Recalling Williams’s goal against Derby, he added: "It was a great strike. He lit the place up.”
The 20-year-old’s return has added to McCarthy’s options in midfield with Teddy Bishop amongst others having emerged since Williams was at Portman Road the first time around.
"Good players, can they play together?” he said. "They’re youngsters I accept that. I think we’ve had good performances from others as well.
"Kevin Bru was excellent on Saturday and was at Derby when he played. Teddy Bishop’s come in and ripped it up, there’s a fair bit of competition in there now.”
McCarthy believes that Bru, who made his full home debut on Saturday, is already up to the speed of English football, having previously played his football in France and Bulgaria, however, he feels striker Balint Bajner has found adjusting to the rigours of the Championship more difficult.
"I think Kevin Bru is, he’s grasped it really well,” he said. "In the game against Derby he was goosed at the end of it, but he continued going, he did something like 13 and a half kilometres in that game, which is a helluva distance.
"There was only Craig Bryson who beat him in terms of covering distances. And I thought he was still going strong on Saturday.
"Balint has found it tough but whenever he’s come on he’s contributed. He certainly did at Birmingham and he did on Saturday.”
McCarthy says fitness coach Andy Liddell deserves praise for the condition the players are in: "The lads keep going, they’re a fit bunch of lads. Andy Liddell’s great, he looks after them and keeps them fit with the warm-ups and all the stuff that he does.
"And the topping up of others who don’t play, that’s important, keeping them fit. But we’re only nine games, we’ve got to do it for another 37!”
McCarthy has switched both his personnel and formation during the Blues’ current four-game winning run, something which he says he has no problem doing.
"I like to keep a winning XI. Other than that, it doesn’t matter really matter, does it? It’s not that I’ve been scratching around changing it because I’ve had to. I’ve changed it because of the games we were playing.
"I have to say that the lads put a real shift in when they play, they do work hard. Having the ability to put fresh legs in, and fresh legs that understand the job and know what they’re doing, aren’t going in because somebody’s injured, is something relatively new for me here.”
Prior to leaving for Sheffield yesterday the squad underwent cryotherapy in a portable facility parked in the Playford Road car park prior to training.
This sees them enter a chamber at temperatures down to -130°C for around two minutes while wearing nothing other than shorts, protection against frostbite on their knees and elbows, gloves, goggles and a hat. The process removes lactic acid and prevents muscle damage.
"It helps recovery,” McCarthy said. "We tested the fitness of the lads last year, we had it in between games in pre-season and the results of the fitness test afterwards was remarkable. It’s something that we do and I think they all feel the benefit of it.”
He added: "It’s double-F when they come out, the second one is ‘freezing’, what the first one is I’m not so sure! Actually it’s about six Fs, it’s f-f-f-f-freezing!
"I’ve not tried it myself. They did ask and I was going in and they gave me a list of health reasons why you can’t go in it and I looked at the form for about two hours and eventually found one. So I haven’t been in.”