Town have confirmed that Christophe Berra and David McGoldrick are in a 23-man squad for this evening’s friendly at Cambridge United (KO 7.45pm). The duo and Daryl Murphy began pre-season training last Monday and are yet to feature in a game after being given an additional fortnight off having been on international duty until mid-June.
Speaking on Friday, manager Mick McCarthy said he was taking things more slowly with Murphy: "He’s had injuries in pre-season before and we’ll make sure he’s ready to come back, we don’t want to get him injured.”
Also missing from the party travelling to the Abbey Stadium will be Jonny Parr, who had a sore thigh when the squad was in Ireland and was rested for the trip to Germany.
Town again seem likely to start a different team in each half of tonight's game as they have in their two previous friendlies.
Cambridge's Lowestoft-born manager Richard Money expects a tougher game than the two back-to-back 60-minute friendlies his club played against Norwich last Friday, the matches ending 1-1 and 2-0 to the Canaries.
"I think it will be a bigger test than Norwich because I'd expect Ipswich are more ready to play than Norwich," he told the Cambridge News.
"The other night had a training game feel to it because of the format, but I think this will be much more of a match.
"I want the same organisation and the same determination as against Norwich, but if we can, we want to have more periods with the ball.
"We'd like some periods where we've got controlled possession and that's not easy against teams who are two or three divisions above you."
CAMBRIDGE: 650 #ITFC fans have bought advance tickets for tonight's match. Tickets are available online at http://t.co/9IN8v4PZRe until 6:30– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) July 21, 2015
CAMBRIDGE: Tickets are available this evening on the gate with no price increase - £12 adults, £8 concessions, £4 17 & Under, U5 FOC #ITFC– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) July 21, 2015
CAMBRIDGE: Tickets are available CASH ONLY on turnstiles or if paying on card from the CUFC ticket office at the stadium #ITFC– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) July 21, 2015