Fit-again Town defender Adam Webster has declared he is ready and willing to make a shock return to first team duty this weekend.
Webster, sidelined since requiring ankle surgery in January, had initially been written off until the start of the new campaign in August.
But he is hoping to feature at some stage of Town’s final-day visit to face Nottingham Forest on Sunday in a live-on-Sky clash that will determine whether the hosts, or either Blackburn or Birmingham, drop down to League One alongside the bottom two, Rotherham and Wigan.
Webster, 22, said: "From when I got injured I set targets about when I would get back. You have a time frame and the Forest game was going to be the realistic one that I would be available for. If I’m involved, great, but if I’m not I just have to get ready for next season.
"I’ve been training for the last couple of weeks now and I feel good to be fair. Everything went well with the injury and I didn’t have any setbacks so you’ll have to ask the manager if I’m going to be involved.”
Webster arrived at Portman Road last summer in a £700,000 deal that also saw fellow defender Matt Clarke move in the opposite direction after a successful loan period at Fratton Park.
He quickly established himself in manager Mick McCarthy’s starting line-up and had clocked up 23 appearances in all competitions before an injury in training led to him having to spend months on the sidelines.
Webster recalled: "Last year, when I came to Ipswich, I was already injured so I missed probably the first 10 days of the pre-season training. So it would be nice this year to have a full pre-season under my belt.
"It happened in January and it was the same injury that I had when I first came here. Because I never had the operation before there was always a chance that I was going to do it again, which I didn’t know at the time.
"It just gave way in training one day but I didn’t think it was that bad. I had a scan and it turned out I had ruptured it again so it wasn’t the best of times for me to be honest. But thankfully the operation went well and the surgeon was really happy about it.
"The ankle feels brand new again. I’ve had no setbacks, no stiffness and no soreness. It’s something I definitely needed doing, as the surgeon said, because it was in a bad way but now it feels really good and I’m ready if needed at Forest.
"I’ve been feeling good in training and I’ve not had any setbacks. I definitely feel ready. I haven’t had a chat with the gaffer about it — I’ll just leave it to him and if he decides to play me then great.”