His goal tally for the season may be only five but netting twice in his last four games confirms Town striker David McGoldrick is currently enjoying a good run of form.
McGoldrick was one of many first-team regulars who sat out the 1-0 defeat at Rotherham last Saturday as manager Mick McCarthy made nine changes to his starting line-up from the exciting victory over Newcastle on Easter Monday.
But the Republic of Ireland international had been ever-present in 14 games prior to the visit to South Yorkshire and is nailed on to start Saturday’s visit of another team from that part of the world, Sheffield Wednesday, to Portman Road.
McGoldrick said: "I appreciated the rest last week. Throughout the season, some of the boys who played at Rotherham have travelled to all our games and they were unhappy about not playing.
"They were in the dressing room for every game, egging us on and wanting us to win, so it was good to give them a chance.
"They are all good lads and I wanted the strikers to do well because they are all rooting for me when I play.
"Obviously, every footballer wants to play the games and it was nice to see them given a chance to express themselves. I was at the game.
"We all travelled and were in the changing room beforehand, being supportive, so it wasn’t a case of having free time.”
McGoldrick, 29, has reached a stage in his career where his fitness is closely monitored between games and a day off is just as likely to provide as much benefit as a training session.
He explained: "It’s not a secret that I’ve had injuries in the past but I’m not always thinking that there’s another one round the corner.
"Injuries happen and they have happened to me but hopefully they are behind me now. I look after myself better now than in the past.
"I don’t train every day because the gaffer gives me extra rest days. If we don’t have a midweek game I’ll maybe miss training on the Monday or Tuesday.
"They look after me well here. I’ve been having a good run of games and long may it continue but things can happen and if I get injured I get injured.
"In the past, before the injuries started to come along, even if I was stiff I would still have the hunger and want to train. But sometimes you have to listen to your body and take the extra rest day.
"It has worked for me so far and I’ll be keeping it in mind for the rest of my career.
"At the moment I’m feeling good, playing games and getting a good run in the team without getting injured by picking up little knocks, which is always good.
"It’s obviously good as well when the team is also performing well. The balance of the team has been very good over the past couple of weeks with the performances and the wins over Burton and Newcastle. We all want that to continue.
"I think I’m playing well, probably the best I’ve played this season because at the start it wasn’t any good. I was injured and out of the team back then but I’m on a good run of games at the moment.
"I didn’t score for a long time but I still felt I was contributing and the goals are coming now, which makes it look even better.”
Asked if he was disappointed by his five-goal haul, McGoldrick replied: "As a striker you want to score goals all the time and if I’d scored more often maybe we would have won more games this season.
"But I was told when I was younger not to worry about not scoring and that the time to worry was when I wasn’t getting chances.
"I know I’ve had chances and that I should have been more clinical and ruthless. Sometimes I’ve been a bit too clever with the chances but I’m never worried about not scoring because I know the chances are there and no doubt, on any given day, I’ll put them away.”