Blues boss Mick McCarthy says he’ll be having a word with Tom Lawrence about picking up yellow cards for dissent, the 10-goal Town top scorer having received his 10th booking of the season and therefore a two-match suspension for talking back to referee Roger East during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton.
The 23-year-old Welshman - one of six Blues cautioned at the Amex which means the club will be fined £5,000 - misses Saturday’s home game with Leeds and next Sunday’s East Anglian derby against Norwich at Carrow Road.
"I had a word before and I’ll be having a word again,” McCarthy said. "It’s just daft and it’s our loss, of course.
"Let’s hope it’s not such a big loss and somebody else comes in, it’s a challenge for somebody to come in and score goals and play as well as Tom has done because he’s been outstanding. It’s a big loss for us.”
One of Freddie Sears, Brett Pitman or Kieffer Moore - who would be making his full Town debut - will replace Lawrence against the Whites on Saturday.
"We’ve got Fred and Pits and we’ve also got Kieffer, who I think has done really well whenever he’s been on the pitch,” McCarthy reflected. "He gives us something else, a different dimension to the game.
"And he’s a threat, it’s difficult to deal with that kind of a player if he’s in the box and you put crosses in. He’s certainly a threat at freekicks and corners.
"We’ve got the finishing and craft and guile of Pits, we’ve certainly got pace and legs with Freddie and we’ve got a real physical presence with Kieffer.”
McCarthy has been pleased with the way the members of his squad currently out of the side have taken being omitted.
"Yes. they’re all fine,” he said. "None of them will be as happy or as content now because they’re not playing but that does me no harm at all.
"Having them walk around and being all nicey-nicey to me and laughing and joking, that’s not going to happen, but being out of the team you want them to be focused on getting back in and when they do get back in on playing well.
"[I’ve now got] a lot of players around [and] I’ve been able to leave people out, whereas when I had 12 players I couldn’t.
"I think sometimes it’s almost a relief for some players when it’s not been going well, they’re in a team which has not been playing well, we’re getting a bit of grief and it’s ‘I’m all right, I want to play’.
"But then they get left out and it’s ‘Phew’. Somebody else comes in, we win a couple of games and they come back in when the team’s playing well and they can benefit from that.
"It’s the same whether they’ve been dropped or whether they’re out through injury, you hope they come back and they’re ready to play.”