Town boss Mick McCarthy has paid tribute to striker Luke Varney, who is set to come up against his old side with his current club Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Friday evening.
Varney joined the Brewers in January with his latest short-term deal with the Blues - his third stint at the club - coming to an end.
The 34-year-old has made four starts and seven sub appearances without scoring for Nigel Clough’s side, having netted three times for the Blues earlier in the campaign.
"He was brilliant, Reg,” McCarthy said. "He was such a great kid, everybody loved him as a player, as a personality.
"He did his achilles against Norwich [in the play-offs] and we kept him here, we put him up and got him fit.
"And he repaid us, he repaid us with a winner at Derby and he contributed a lot on the pitch but certainly off the pitch as well, he was terrific.”
The Town manager says the plan was that Varney, who rejoined the Blues in August after David McGoldrick suffered an early season injury having been released at the end of last season, would move on in January with his family based in the Midlands.
"There was always an understanding between me and Varns that he was going to stay until Christmas and then he would look at something else,” he continued.
"There probably would have been something here for him but he wanted to move back up there, and he got an 18-month contract and that was better for him.
"He was [getting in the goals before he left], but the understanding was that it went to Christmas and he could look for something else equally as we could make him an offer.
"But they made him a good offer and he chose to go back. And I don’t blame him, he’s got a young family.”
Varney’s time at Burton got off to a tough start when he suffered a punctured lung and a broken rib on his debut but he has started to establish himself in recent weeks.
The striker says he’ll be looking to grab his first goal for the Brewers against Town: "Always — we are always trying to score against any team, especially a previous team," he told the Burton Mail.
"It will be nice to see friendly faces but, hopefully, we get the positive result and we'll all shake hands after.
"I must admit, it's another football game for me — I've played in a lot. It will be nice to see a few old friends and a few old rivalries from training — I owe a couple of them one!
"It will be nice to see some of them but, at the end of the day, it's another massively important game for us.
"And it is also for them as well, because they are not quite 100 per cent clear mathematically, so they will be desperate for the points. But under the lights on Friday night, I'm sure we'll put a good show on."
How does Varney look back on his spells with the Blues, which started with a loan from Blackburn in the second half of the 2014/15 play-off season: "With great pleasure. I had a serious injury but they were great for me. They looked after me, got me fit and honoured my contract.
"It's a great club, fan base and the staff. It was one of the best two and a half years of my career. I enjoyed my time there."
In total, Varney made 14 starts and 21 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring five goals.