Town boss Mick McCarthy says striker David McGoldrick was “devastated” when he suffered his latest injury setback in training ahead of last week’s game at Fulham.
The Irish international had only just returned to action following a groin problem, having missed most of the second half of last season with a troublesome thigh niggle and been out of action for the final months of 2013/14 after suffering a serious knee injury.
"The conspiracy theories are nuts because he’s really torn his hamstring badly and he’s going to be out for a number of weeks,” McCarthy said.
"He can’t do anything about that. I can assure you that he hasn’t torn it on purpose so he doesn’t have to play or anything like that.
"He was devastated, it’s a long time since I’ve seen a player that was so upset. When he did the injury he was sat in the dugout and he was in bits.
"We had to help him off the pitch. He was devastated, absolutely devastated because he’s had so many injuries, and long-term ones which had kept him out.
"And he loves playing football, he loves being out on the training pitch, so it was really sad to see him like that.”
McGoldrick, 28, who has scored three goals this season, signed a new contract tying him to Town until 2018 earlier in the campaign.
Also still sidelined is midfielder Teddy Bishop, who expressed his frustration at having been unable to feature for the first-team this season on Twitter last week.
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 💙⚽︖ Ted bishop (@ted10bishop) December 18, 2015
The 19-year-old has been hampered by shin splints and a hamstring problem. The former academy player had hoped he was closing in on a return earlier this month before suffering another setback.
"He’s still having treatment on his hamstring unfortunately,” McCarthy said. "Treatment and rehab. Treatment, get it right, strengthening, and then hopefully he’ll be back asap.”
Asked whether he thought Bishop was at the end of his tether, the Town boss added: "Yes, and he’ll probably meet me there as well.
"You can’t do anything else [but keep taking the doctors’ advice] because he’s been coming back [and then had setbacks] and we’ve stripped him back to the bone and gone to pre-season mode and tried to get him back. It’s just unfortunate.
"We’ll get the result that we require in the end but it’s just sad sometimes, it happens to players. He had a growth spurt and that can leave you a little bit vulnerable.”