Skipper Luke Chambers, Cole Skuse and Christophe Berra won’t be risked as the Blues travel to Portsmouth for Tuesday’s FA Cup third round replay. Boss Mick McCarthy wouldn’t name his team, as he did the day before the first match, but is likely to name a very young side.
"We’ve got some walking wounded,” McCarthy said. "Skusey’s got a tight hamstring, Christophe’s going for an injection on his shoulder having landed really heavily a couple of times on Saturday.
"Chambo played the last 10 minutes with a calf strain, a tight calf, and just generally there are bumps and bruises.
"It showed in the game that we’d had to work so hard on Tuesday night, the euphoria of winning when we did [perhaps masked that]. I just think it takes its toll on a lot of them. So there’ll be a few changes tomorrow night because of it.”
The Town boss hopes the trio will be fine ahead of Saturday’s crunch Championship game away at Birmingham City, who are eighth, a place behind the Blues.
"I’m hoping so, we’ll see,” he added. "I hope they’ll train Thursday, they more than likely will but there’s no chance of them being risked tomorrow.”
McCarthy opted not to announce his XI, having named his side the day before the Portman Road match, which ended 2-2.
"No, I’m not going to do it this time,” he continued. "There’ll be a number of changes in it.
"I’d say, bearing in mind that they haven’t played since they played us, they certainly are fresh legs, and Birmingham haven’t got a game on Tuesday night.
"It’ll be a younger [team] and I hope an inspirational performance from some of them. Let’s see what they’ve got.
"We’ve got 19 games left and it is taking its toll on one of two of them. When Skusey starts complaining of a tight hamstring and Chambo starts complaining about a tight calf, you know that it’s taking its toll.
"So I’d like to see one or two be ready if I need them to play, and who knows, it could turn out that we need them in the next league game or the one after and I’d like to think they’ve had a game and they could compete for that place.”
He confirmed that U21s skipper Joe Robinson and Kyle Hammond would be amongst those travelling, while Josh Emmanuel, Myles Kenlock and Adam McDonnell also seem set to be amongst the youngsters at least making the 18 with Town fielding a very youthful U21s side against Colchester this afternoon.
Tommy Oar, Piotr Malarczyk, Bartosz Bialkowski, Luke Varney and Luke Hyam all look set to start as they did in the Portman Road match, while Paul Digby, a debutant in the first game, is also likely to be in the squad if not the team. Jay Tabb, Giles Coke and Larsen Touré could also come into the picture for starts or places on the bench.
David McGoldrick and Teddy Bishop both remain sidelined with hamstring injuries, while the Blues are still to receive international clearance for Kevin Foley, who is ineligible for tomorrow’s match in any case having not been at the club for the first game.