Town boss Mick McCarthy says striker David McGoldrick is chomping at the bit ahead of today’s return to his former club Nottingham Forest.
The 27-year-old joined the Blues from Forest, initially on loan, in January 2013 having fallen out of favour at the City Ground.
The Ireland international, who has scored three goals in six starts and eight sub appearances this season, missed the trip to Hull in midweek with a groin problem and McCarthy is pleased that he's in contention for today's game.
"I didn’t think Didzy was going to be available," he admitted. "I thought he was struggling for Saturday but he came to my office [on Thursday] morning with Matt Byard, the physio, and said ‘I want to be considered, I want to be in contention, I think I’m OK’.
"And he’s trained [that] morning, so I’m delighted with that. That’ll be a real plus if he’s fit."
He says the Blues number 10 is eager to get back into action, even more so given that today’s opposition is his former club.
"Bearing in mind it’s Nottingham Forest as well, of course he is,” McCarthy said. "It would be fabulous [to get him back to his form of a couple of seasons ago].
"I said the other day that the year before we had Didz was scoring, before he got injured he got 16 goals, and last year we had Murph with 27. And then Freddie came in, of course, and scored almost at will.
"I think there were games we’d have won [this season], games we could have won because we created enough chances in them but it’s just not happened yet. It’s not all been doom and gloom but we’d like to get Didz back at his pomp.”
McCarthy says the Blues’ recent downturn in form isn’t due to a change in approach on the training ground and is confident that results will get back on track sooner rather than later.
"It’s not like we’re doing anything vastly different, that we’ve suddenly taken our foot off the gas, that’s not been the case,” he added.
"We’ll continue doing what’s brought us success in the past, which we have had, relative success anyway. We’ll just make sure it turns around.”
Even though he has a bigger squad this season, McCarthy says he knows who his best team is when everyone’s available and at their best: "If everybody was fit every week then it’s really easy to pick it but if you get injuries and loss of form it becomes a bit more difficult to pick your best team.”
The Town boss points out that sides can have poor runs and yet still have successful seasons. His Wolves team went through a spell of winning one league game in 11 midway through their 2008/09 Championship title-winning campaign.
"We’d had a really good start though, we won seven on the bounce twice,” he recalled. "It’s a long old season and we’ve had a tough time. I’m not going to shy away from that.
"Some games we’ve played well and we’ve been beaten but we’ve not played well all the time. But I’ve got faith in the lads and the belief in them that we will turn it around.”
McCarthy believes that the Championship is a stronger division this year with even sides currently in the lower reaches having impressed in recent games against the Blues.
"It looks it,” he added. "If you think of the teams we’ve just played, Bristol City, Birmingham, Huddersfield, they all look like strong teams. And there’ll be some at the bottom thinking that they’re struggling away at it.
"I think the league has got stronger, the clubs that have come down have spent money, it seems to me that Hull have maintained their side. Despite losing a few they’ve got a really good team there.
"Derby have spent a load of money, Middlesbrough have. It seemed to be dropping away and the wages seemed to be dropping away but the incentive of £130 million has prompted a few people to spent a few quid. The league is stronger, I think.”
While the reward for promotion to the Premier League has grown with a new more lucrative TV deal starting next season, changes to the Financial Fair Play rules allowing larger annual losses meant Championship clubs spent more this summer than in recent close seasons.
McCarthy’s Forest counterpart Dougie Freedman says the division is as close as ever and that his team, who are without a win in five games, will have to be at their best to beat the Blues.
"The Championship is such a tight league,” Freedman told the Forest official site. "We’ve played QPR, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Hull and Burnley and they’ve all been close matches. We know that if we don’t turn up with the right attitude then we won’t get anywhere.
"The performances over the last six games, except for 20 minutes at Bristol City, have been fantastic. Now it’s about getting that consistency and winning games on football regularly.
"I want to win games of football in a certain way and I think the Forest fans do too. We’re not a long ball team, we try and use the technical ability and energy we’ve got. We’ve shown on our day that we can match anybody in this division and tomorrow’s game is another tough test.”