Town boss Mick McCarthy says David McGoldrick is looking sharp in training but says the 28-year-old needs to play an U21 game before he can be considered for the first team. McGoldrick has been out since mid-December with a hamstring injury.
"It’s lovely to see him, he’s trained really well,” McCarthy said. "[On Monday] he trained with the lads who hadn’t been training and he trained with the squad [yesterday].
"He looks sharp, but that’s only in the small-sided games. He’ll play on Monday in the U21s [against his former club Nottingham Forest].
"He’s a top player, a top, top Championship player that anybody would miss, so it would be lovely to have him back.”
McCarthy has said McGoldrick is likely to make his return to the senior squad for the trip to Wolves a fortnight on Saturday and he says the Republic of Ireland international is determined to make an impact in the final weeks of the season.
"He’s really motivated to play in the remaining games after the break. I don’t think we’ll see him before, Saturday’s too soon and he needs to play a game.
"He’s motivated to play in the eight games coming up [after the international break], giving himself a chance of playing in the European Championships for Ireland.”
Having been without McGoldrick and Ryan Fraser for long spells, as well as Teddy Bishop for the whole season, three of the best players in the squad, the Blues have arguably done well to remain involved in the play-off race.
"We want to give ourselves a chance to still be in the hunt when they come back and that’s why these two games are really vitally for us,” McCarthy added.
"I heard Gary Rowett at Birmingham say after their point at Wolves that if they can win their game in hand then they’re in a great position. And exactly the same with us, we will be if we can win our next two games.
"And then fingers crossed we’d have Didzy back, I don’t know about Ryan, we’ll have to wait and see.”
McCarthy has previously said he hopes Fraser, who is continuing his rehab from his hamstring injury back with his parent club AFC Bournemouth, will also be back to make the trip to Wolves.
Regarding Bishop, who could now be out for the rest of the season, McCarthy dismissed suggestions that he might have brought someone in to cover for the 19-year-old in the summer had he known how long he would be missing.
"With whom?” the Town boss asked. "We’ve got Jonny Douglas, Skusey, Kevin Bru, we’ve got Luke Hyam, Tabby, we’ve got Giles Coke.
"Certainly replacing him like for like was just never going to happen, so we’ve had midfield players in the building, but it was never going to happen in terms of replacing him.”