Brentford and Ireland winger Alan Judge has tweeted his thanks for the messages of support he has received from throughout football since suffering a broken leg during the early stages of the Bees’ 3-1 victory over the Blues at Portman Road on Saturday.
"First of all I would like to thank everyone for their messages of support from the Bees fans, players I have an have not played with and from fans of other clubs around the country,” wrote the 27-year-old, who will now miss out on a place in the Irish squad at Euro 2016.
"It has been very touching to me and my family. This is football and things like this happen; that's life.
"I will be back stronger and much better than I have been before. I will achieve my dream one way or the other. Nothing will hold me back.”
Meanwhile, his Bees’ team-mate Alan McCormack says that as a result of Judge’s injury, the visitors’ dressing room was subdued after the match, despite having achieved the club’s first ever win away against Town.
"You don't want to see anyone injured. You want to rewind the clock and go back. People are going to get injured in tackles or take a broken nose for the team,” he told GetWestLondon.
pic.twitter.com/HUbcWxLh95– alan judge (@10judgey) April 10, 2016
"It's what you do to get three points. I'm sure Judgey is delighted with the result but devastated with the news.
"The dressing room after was a very quiet atmosphere considering we've won 3-1 away at Ipswich.
"We all feel for Judgey. Football can be a cruel game. We wish him all the best. Hopefully we'll see him on the pitch soon.”
McCormack admits he and his team-mates were less than happy with Luke Hyam for the tackle which led to Judge’s injury and weren’t disappointed to see him dismissed after he picked up a second yellow card for retaliating following a Ryan Woods tackle just before half-time.
He added: "I wasn't too impressed with it. I had a behind view so I haven't fully seen it. I think it was the force of the challenge and the way he has come in.
"You know what's happening and you could hear a lot of things happening in it. It was a bad one.”
"Everyone was very annoyed with the player. I wouldn't want to say justice was done with him being sent off as you don't want players sent off but our players could have got into trouble as they wanted to look after Judgey and make sure that it's not forgotten.
"He'll hold his hands up to say he didn't mean to. I'm not saying revenge is sweet but it might be for the best he wasn't on the pitch too much longer.”