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Downes a Doubt for Millwall But Ward Back - Ipswich Town News

Midfielder Flynn Downes is a doubt ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Millwall with the knock he suffered at Barnsley on Saturday, while Grant Ward will return to the squad having missed the last two games having picked up a calf injury in the opening day win against Birmingham.

"He’s having treatment today,” manager Mick McCarthy said of 18-year-old Downes at his pre-match press conference, which was shown live on TWTV.

"He’s a certainly a doubt for the Millwall game. It’s a big old ask for him as well, he’s just come in.

"I’ve just seen him in the physio room and he’s got a nasty bruise on his foot and on his calf. We’ll wait until tomorrow and see how he is.”

McCarthy says no other significant knocks were picked up during the 2-1 victory at Oakwell: "As you can imagine there are a few tired legs and bumps and bruises.

"Freddie’s got a bruise on his foot but I think he’ll be OK, he’s pretty durable. All the others seem to be OK. Grant Ward will be OK for tomorrow.”

The Town boss was delighted to see Luke Hyam play the first 45 minutes of this afternoon’s 3-2 U23s victory over Crewe at Playford Road.

"Isn’t that brilliant? I was delighted,” he said. "I just saw him and said to him that I love to see him the kit, it was great. Just to see him donning that Ipswich Town kit again because he’s had it on once, twice or three times maybe in the last 12 months. So that was lovely.

"And he’s just got through 45 minutes. He’s an extremely athletic, fit guy and he’ll get his fitness quickly. Forty-five minutes was enough for him and it was great to see him playing.

"I would target the Crystal Palace game for him some minutes in that if we could. We’ll see how is tomorrow. That’ll tell us a huge amount. We’ll see how he feels.”

McCarthy says he isn’t expecting Emyr Huws, Tom Adeyemi or Teddy Bishop to be back before the international break, although the Wales international is hoping he can be involved before then.

"Emyr’s making noises about training on Thursday, so that would be good if he is, he feels good, he’s had his treatment on his achilles,” he added.

"Likewise the Crystal Palace game would be a chance if we could get minutes into him. We’ll see. Tom Adeyemi is a bit behind Emyr and Teddy’s nowhere near it.”

Adeyemi, who was at Playford Road with the rest of the squad as they underwent their now familiar cryotherapy session ahead of tomorrow’s game, was hit hard by the illness bug which affected several members of the squad during pre-season, while Bishop has a groin injury.

Central defenders Tommy Smith and Adam Webster are out for eight weeks with hamstring and ankle injuries respectively, while Andre Dozzell will miss the rest of the season having torn his cruciate knee ligament.

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