Town boss Mick McCarthy admits that Sunday’s game at Nottingham Forest could be central defender Christophe Berra’s last match for the Blues with the 32-year-old Scotland international keen to return home for family reasons.
McCarthy says the Blues are yet to take up the one-year option on Berra’s contract which otherwise is up this summer.
"Possibly, that’s not been taken up,” the Blues boss said when asked if the match at the City Ground might be the final time Berra wears a Town shirt.
"It’s been widely known that Christophe has got a desire to be back up in Edinburgh because of his daughter.
"And I met her on the pitch on Saturday and I said to him ‘I can see why you want to go back to Edinburgh’.
"They’re still discussing that between him and Marcus. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t want to keep a player that wasn’t happy and not wanting to play.
"But we all know that if we did take up his option I think Christophe is also resigned to the fact that he’d play. He wouldn’t come back and down tools, he’d probably still be the best defender and he’d want to play.”
Regarding the option, the Blues boss added: "We have to give him a letter to take up his option by the end of May. There’s not a decision been made on that yet.
"People don’t always like options but I think [owner] Marcus [Evans] has been double shrewd and clever in terms of us having all these players on options this year and had we been relegated, we’d still got the options and their wages would have been seriously cut.
"I think it’s a great motivating tool when you’re coming to the end of the season. I’ve seen it, I pretty much saw it when I turned up here, there were one or two not bothered because they weren’t going to be here anyway, their contracts were up, they could walk out, they were going to get relegated, they’ll probably get another job in the Championship.
"That’s stops that - ‘By the way, if we get relegated you’re still here and you’re going to be on 50 per cent, 40 per cent, 30 per cent of your salary’. If that’s not a motivation to run around and make sure the club stays in the league, I don’t know what is.”
Might Town look to take up the option then look for a fee with Berra’s former club Hearts - from where McCarthy signed Berra for £2.3 million in 2009 when Wolves manager - repeatedly having been linked and Rangers also reported to be keen?
"That’s really Marcus’s shout, to be honest,” the Town manager added. "I get that. I guess if there was a deal to be done with another club even if it was a swap deal and they said ‘Right, we’ll sign him and we’ll swap him for somebody’ but that’s not the case.
"It’s a difficult situation and it’s kind of a sad one because we’ve got a really good defender but I get it. Football is not everything, he’s got a family. And, as I said, I saw his little girl on the pitch on Saturday and if she was my daughter - or my granddaughter as the case may be - I’d want to be spending time with her as well.”
McCarthy says that purely based on football he’d certainly keep hold of Berra, who he brought to Portman Road on a free transfer following his release by Wolves in the summer of 2013.
"Yes, no question he’d be here,” he continued. "As a defender, he’s one of the best I’ve worked with. Consistent, plays games, he’s quick, he’s good in the air. He’s just been a pretty much ever-present whenever he’s been fit.
"There was as spell he didn’t play at Wolves but I don’t know how many games he’s played under me, quite a lot I think, 300 maybe.”
He added: "He’s a really top defender, he’s been a really good servant to both clubs, certainly while I’ve been there, and he’s a good guy as well. He’s just a really top professional. I can’t speak highly enough of him actually.”
Berra has made 183 starts and one sub appearance for the Blues, scoring 14 goals.