Town boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that midfielder Jay Tabb will be moving on at the end of the season with his contract up. The 32-year-old hasn’t played a Championship game this season, although has made four cup starts, scoring one goal.
The Blues boss reiterated that winger Cameron Stewart, who has a year left on his contract, remains available for transfer.
The 25-year-old has made only two cup sub appearances since joining the Blues in the summer of 2014 - both during 2014/15 - and spent most of this season on loan in League One with Doncaster Rovers.
"Cameron Stewart’s been up at Doncaster and he’ll be moving on in the summer, other than that Tabby will be freed,” McCarthy confirmed.
"He’s been fabulous, he’s one who without playing a game all season could have won the ‘most selfless player award’ because he comes and trains every day, when he’s played in the cup games he’s played well, he trains well, he’s a prime example to any young player. He really is a fantastic character and hopefully I’ll see him tomorrow.”
Tabb joined Town initially on loan from Reading in March 2013 and made the switch permanent that summer following his release by the Royals. The former Ireland U21 international went on to make a total of 61 starts and 24 sub appearances, scoring five goals.
The Blues boss says he’s not yet spoken to any other players, including the likes of Luke Varney and Larsen Touré, who are both out of contract this summer, about whether they will be offered new terms
Having said that Luke Hyam’s agent has accepted the offer of a new contract last week, he says there are so far no further developments on a new deal for Tommy Smith, although like the midfielder the centre-half is tied down to the club for another season in any case.
"They’ve both got one year left, we took up the option on both of them and discussions are still ongoing with Marcus and their agents,” he added.