Town boss Mick McCarthy has named his team for Saturday’s third round FA Cup tie against Portsmouth at Portman Road and will hand a debut to new loan signing Paul Digby at the heart of the defence. Digby, 20, joined the Blues on loan from Barnsley for the season last week.
"Our team tomorrow is Bart, Luke Chambers, Jonas Knudsen, Piotr Malarczyk, Paul Digby, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Tommy Oar, Skusey, Luke Hyam, Brett Pitman and Luke Varney,” McCarthy revealed at this afternoon’s press conference.
The Town manager says midfielder Jonathan Douglas, who missed last week’s 0-0 draw at Burnley with a knee problem, is on the mend and should be OK to be in the 18, although striker Daryl Murphy will miss out.
"Dougie’s trained today and he’s all right for the squad but that’s his first day training because we could train yesterday because the pitches were flooded,” McCarthy added.
"Larsen Touré’s been out on the pitch today training [having been out with a groin problem] and Murph’s got a bit of a calf which will prevent him from being involved tomorrow.
"I hope [it won’t be a problem for Leeds on Tuesday], I hope there’s nothing to worry about and he is OK and I think he will be. But he hasn’t trained today, I’m hoping he’ll train on Sunday.”
Kevin Bru is unlikely to be in the 18 having suffered with a hamstring problem after the Burnley game, while David McGoldrick - who McCarthy expects to be out for another six weeks - and Teddy Bishop remain on the sidelines with their hamstring injuries.
One notable absentee from the XI is Jonny Parr, a target of Norwegian side Strømsgodset, and we understand talks are still ongoing regarding the full-back’s potential switch.
McCarthy confirmed that right-back Josh Emmanuel is back at the club but says that the 18-year-old could return to his loan club Crawley.
"I’ve not heard from [Crawley manager] Mark Yates, although Josh did suggest to me that they wanted him back but if they do then they need to speak to me,” he added.
Cameron Stewart has also returned to Portman Road but McCarthy says the winger, who currently has a back injury, will be going back out on loan.
"He’ll be going somewhere else on loan or back to Doncaster, I’ve not spoken to them,” the Town boss confirmed.
Regarding Alex Henshall, who hasn’t been involved in the first team this season, he added: "He’s free to leave, he has been free to leave for the last I don’t know how many months, since I last spoke about him.
"He’s just not made it here, simple as that, not good enough to get in the team, so if that’s the case it’s time to leave and go and earn a living somewhere else, and I hope he does and I’m sure he will.”
Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Malarczyk, Digby, Knudsen, Skuse, Hyam, Maitland-Niles, Oar, Pitman, Varney.
Photo: ITFC