Town boss Mick McCarthy says midfielder Teddy Bishop will be finding his long spell out injured “really difficult” with a hamstring problem having prevented the 19-year-old from playing a single senior game so far this season.
Bishop has been out of first-team action since pre-season initially due to shin splints - which also hampered him at the end of last season - and then a hamstring injury.
The Cambridge-born youngster played for the U21s at Birmingham in mid-September, then in the home game against Crystal Palace at the end of October but hasn’t been involved since.
"He’s still injured unfortunately,” McCarthy said. "He broke down again a couple of weeks ago with his hamstring, so he’s just having treatment and we are eagerly awaiting his comeback, whenever that might be.”
The Blues boss says the club are leaving no stone unturned as they look to get the academy product back to full fitness.
"We do try everything, all the treatments you can think of and all the people we can think of,” he added.
"Sometimes it happens. When a player’s been growing it throws the body out of kilter and [the injury] does come back, whatever it might be. I’ve no idea, he’s just got a weakness somewhere, we’ve seen it with players [before] that sometimes it just is that.
"We have to isolate it, which we’ve done, get it better, strengthen it and hopefully he’ll be back playing soon.”
McCarthy says he's seen plenty of players similarly suffer during their careers: "I remember seeing Ryan Giggs always had a hamstring strain and he played about 800 games, however that happened.
"We had one here, Kieron Dyer, who was injured lots of time for whatever reasons, so of course I’ve seen it.
"And I went to Sunderland and Matt Piper, who was a really good player, a winger, he had trouble with his groins and couldn’t get them right and it’s really sad to see, even more so when they are so talented.
"I hope he’s back soon, for him, because it’s [really frustrating]. I was out for about 12 weeks at Celtic when I was there and it’s horrible being at the training ground because you don't want to walk round smiling because everybody thinks you’re happy and you shouldn’t be because you’re injured.
"That doesn’t bother me but I’ve had managers like that, ‘What are you smiling at? You’ve been injured for 12 weeks’. It’s nonsense.
"And then people start saying ‘Is he a sicknote?’, ‘Is he ever going to be fit?’. All those conspiracy theories that we’ve had about David McGoldrick. They all start going and, of course, this nonsense on social media feeds all that.
"It’s really difficult for him, it’s really difficult for Bish as a young kid because he wants to be playing and footballers are never happy except when they’re playing.
"You get in a bit of a low when you’re injured for such a long time and you can’t see an end to it.”
McCarthy says Bishop’s return whenever it comes is something he is very much looking forward to: "It’ll be fantastic.”