Town striker David McGoldrick is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering what manager Mick McCarthy says is a “nasty tear” to his hamstring, while Teddy Bishop continues to be frustrated by his hamstring problems, but better news is that Cole Skuse will be OK to face Derby tomorrow despite breaking his nose at Fulham in midweek.
"He’s got quite a nasty tear in his hamstring so he’ll be out for a while,” McCarthy revealed regarding McGoldrick, who picked up the injury in training ahead of Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Craven Cottage.
"He’s had an awful year, it’s very unfortunate and it was so innocuous. He just went to backheel a pass to somebody and pulled up.
"You couldn’t imagine that he would have done the damage to his hamstring that he has just by doing that.
"Very sad, very tough for him, he’s going to be missing for quite a while but on the other side of that we’ve just signed Luke Varney today so that’s a replacement, a body to come in and we’re back to four strikers again, which is great. But we’ll miss Didzy.”
Skuse was replaced at half-time against the Cottagers but McCarthy says he’ll be fine to take up his central midfield role against the Rams: "Skusey will be fine, he’s fit and he’ll be playing tomorrow. He’s sat out of training just to protect it for now.
"He’ll be OK, I think he’ll have to have it repaired next week. There’s a queue to do that for him, by the way!”
The Town boss says no one else has suffered any other injuries, aside from Ryan Fraser, who picked up a minor knock in training.
"Ryan Fraser got a kick on his calf and I’m hoping that he’ll be OK but we’ll see,” McCarthy added. "He’s just pulled up this morning, it was starting to tighten up. I think he’ll be all right to be involved. Other than that we’re OK.
Winger Larsen Touré has been out with a groin problem but McCarthy says the Guinean international isn’t far away from a return to the squad: "Larsen will be another couple of weeks, he had a really nasty groin injury.”
Having said that Teddy Bishop, who is yet to make a senior appearance this season, has been making progress in recent weeks, the Blues manager says the 19-year-old is continuing to be frustrated by his injury problems.
Asked whether the academy product might be involved over the Christmas period, McCarthy said: "No, his hamstring is still bothering him. When’s he likely to be back? How long is a piece of string?
Most people are happy if they get time off their job, all I want to do is play football 😒, I'll be back stronger tho 💙⚽ï¸
— Ted bishop (@ted10bishop) December 18, 2015
"It’s very, very sad with him because he keeps getting back to a certain point where he comes out and trains.
"We’re very thorough, our physio department are excellent, Matt Byard and his team are great, and the docs. And we send him to the best specialists to get him looked at.
"So it’s very frustrating for him, very sad for him because he’s a talented player and very frustrating for the medical team and for me because I’ve got a fantastic young talent that I can’t select at the minute.”