Town boss Mick McCarthy says midfielder Luke Hyam could go out on a month’s loan to continue his comeback after almost 11 months out with a knee injury. The Blues boss is ruling out a similar short-term switch for Teddy Bishop, although would be willing to allow youngsters such as Josh Emmanuel to go out for spells, but has no plans to add to his own squad before next week’s loan deadline.
Hyam is in action for Town’s U21s at QPR this afternoon and McCarthy says he could go out for a month elsewhere with his opportunities likely to be limited at Portman Road as he gets back to the top of his game having been out injured since January.
"He might go out on loan for a month if he gets fit,” McCarthy said. "Bearing in mind we’ve got Skusey, we’ve got Kevin Bru, we’ve got Dougie, we’ve got Ainsley Maitland-Niles, we’ve got Tabby and we’ve got Giles Coke that can play in the middle of midfield.
"If he comes back having had all the time out and gets fit and then he doesn’t play and he travels with us and he doesn’t play, travels with us and doesn’t play again, he loses all the benefit of all his rehab.
"If we can put him out for a month, which I think we probably can and he’s happy to do it, then that’s what will happen.”
He added: "I’ve no doubt about his fitness, I’m certain he’ll be fine today but he needs games and if he gets five or six games he’ll be a lot better for it.”
Regarding Teddy Bishop, he says he has no plans to send him out on loan with the 19-year-old continuing his comeback from shin splints and hamstring problems.
"He’s not quite ready,” the Town manager continued. "[A loan] was never a consideration with Teddy, he’s not been out as long as Luke has. Luke broke down a couple of times as well with his injury.
"We’ll wait and see when Teddy comes back but we’ve got a number of midfield players, maybe one or two with suspensions looming if they’re not careful so we’ll have to keep one or two of them around.”
On-trial Ebbsfleet winger Shilow Tracey played for Town’s U21s against Brentford on Monday but has suffered a knock and McCarthy says he plans to take another look at the 17-year-old.
"He’s been injured but hopefully we’ll look after him, he’ll come back and we’ll look at him again,” he said.
Grays striker Dumebi Dumaka was on trial the previous week but the Town boss has no plans to take his interest any further: "Nothing’s going to happen there.”
Football League clubs have until next Thursday to use the ‘emergency loan’ provision but McCarthy has no plans to add anyone to his squad before that deadline.
"It’ll probably be the case that somebody will go out rather than somebody coming in,” he said.”I don’t think there’s anybody available that I can get that is better than what I’ve got.
"We’re not going to Championship clubs looking for something better than what we’ve got.
"And from the Premier League, we’ve got a really top one in Ainsley but I don’t know how many of those are available. I’m happy with what I’ve got and I’ve got no wish to go out looking for players at all.”
McCarthy says the likes of Josh Emmanuel and Myles Kenlock are available in order to gain experience if clubs want them.
"I’ve already put that out about Josh and anybody else that’s playing [in the U21s],” he added. "There’ll be scouts watching them at QPR today, they’re watching them every week, and if somebody comes in I’ll talk to them.”