Town boss Mick McCarthy is very optimistic that key men Daryl Murphy and Cole Skuse will be available for Saturday’s trip to Cardiff City, while David McGoldrick is likely to be only a few weeks away from his return, but Teddy Bishop is less advanced with his progress with the Blues manager admitting that he's not sure whether the youngster will play this season.
Skuse has missed the last five games with a toe ligament injury, while Murphy has been sidelined for two with a calf problem.
"Very promising, actually,” McCarthy said when asked on the chances of the pair being fit for Cardiff.
"I’ve just spoken to the two of them, they were both just leaving, they were out working today on the training ground. I’m very optimistic that they’ll be OK for Saturday.
Kevin Bru and Ben Pringle both suffered knocks at Bolton on Tuesday but McCarthy says they’ll be fine.
"They both look like they’ll be OK,” he added. "Kevin Foley got a nasty bang on the ribs on top of a bang on the ribs he had before and he’s suffering a little bit but I would anticipate they’ll all be OK.”
Regarding the longer term injured McCarthy has pencilled in David McGoldrick for some involvement at Wolves after the Easter international break, the striker having been out since mid-December with a hamstring problem.
"I think Didzy will be champing at the bit to be involved on April 2nd,” he said.
"He will train on Sunday, he’ll have a week’s training and then we’ve got [an U21s game against] Nottingham Forest on the Monday and if we could get another game into him before the following week when we’ll be playing Wolves, I think he’d be ready to go, at least to be a part of the squad.
"He’s incredibly talented, we’ve missed him every season when he’s been out and he’s potentially got a European Championship place [with the Republic of Ireland to win].
"He’s got a two-pronged motivation. One, to get back and play for Ipswich, but then to have a summer where he could be away for a month playing football and make up for some of the time he’s lost this season and last season, because as footballers we do want to play football, that’s what we do like doing.”
He says Teddy Bishop, who has missed the entire season up to now most recently due to hamstring problems, hasn’t yet progressed as far as McGoldrick.
Can't wait to be back doing what I love ðŸ’™âš½ï¸ pic.twitter.com/OPzyRlI0lL
— Ted bishop (@ted10bishop) March 10, 2016
Asked whether the 19-year-old will play this season, he said: "I don’t know. I hope so but he’s not as advanced as Didzy. We thought he was, we thought he might be training Sunday but not quite.”
He added: "Bish is all right, he’s tried desperately to keep his spirits up and have a smile around the place, but he desperately wants to play.”
McCarthy says he’s heard nothing new from Ryan Fraser, who is back at parent club AFC Bournemouth recovering from his hamstring problem, but he still hopes he’ll be back for the Wolves game.
"I think Eddie Howe said that that’s not guaranteed. I never said it was guaranteed, I was just hoping that that would be the case. If he is, great. If he’s not, we can’t do anything about it.”
McCarthy also confirmed that midfielder Giles Coke is back in training today having suffered a knee injury at QPR.