Blues boss Mick McCarthy says striker David McGoldrick is thoroughly enjoying the way he’s playing having made a terrific start to the season after a couple of injury-hit campaigns.
McGoldrick, 29, has already scored six goals, one more than he did in the whole of last season, and has been the standout performer in what has been an impressive start to 2017/18 from Town, who go into Saturday’s home game against Bristol City sixth a place and a point ahead of the Robins.
Given the Irish international’s previous injury problems, has McCarthy sought to rein him in? "I think you’ll find he’s enjoying himself that much the way he’s playing and the team are playing, he’s pulling the strings a little bit, that if I was to say he’s not playing I think he might have a face on him like a slapped arse.
"And everybody else would, to be quite honest. That’s not likely to happen.
"But certainly with his training, I am conscious of him and if he needs to have a rest, he has a rest.
"Sometimes if we haven’t got a Tuesday game I say, ‘Look, you stay at home’ and he goes and sees his family and try and look after him that way, he’s just had a newborn baby.
"I’m conscious of that and, although I’m talking about David McGoldrick, we do that with every single player, whatever we do to try and get the best out of them, and we’re getting the best out of Didzy at the minute and he’s getting the best out of himself.”
As things stand McGoldrick is out of contract at the end of the season and unlike Cole Skuse and Bartosz Bialkowski, whose terms are also up next summer, the club is understood not to have an option to keep him for a further year.
McCarthy’s deal also ends next summer, although the club has an option to keep him and his assistant Terry Connor for further two seasons, but says that’s not a concern for him.
Would he liked to see new terms offered to McGoldrick and the other players’ whose contracts are due to be up sooner rather than later?
"It’s not all just as simple as that,” he said. "From the outside it’s, ‘Somebody’s got a contract running out’, it’s not just as simple as that. We’ll deal with it when we need to deal with it.”
He added: "Do you know what, there’s one surefire way of upsetting the applecart. We’re doing well at the moment and if people start talking about money and new contracts and the person who is supposedly getting it, it has an effect on them because they’re thinking about something else other than they’re football.
"Other people in the club who think they probably deserve one, all that talks starts filtering through. And it can have a real negative effect. So I’d appreciate it if you’d stop talking about it!”
Midfielder Tristan Nydam’s deal is up at the end of the season as things stand, the youngster having been allowed to sign only a two-year deal when he turned 17. It’s likely that the England U19 international will sign an extension on his 18th birthday in November.
Meanwhile, McCarthy says summer signing Joe Garner has given his side an infectious enthusiasm which rubs off on his team-mates that he didn’t have at his disposal last season.
I didn’t have that up front last season that’s for sure,” McCarthy reflected. "Not like what he brings to the table and that’s what I’ve always loved about him.
"I always thought he was a good player and I have to be honest, he’s a better player than I thought he was. He’s impressed me.”
Martyn Waghorn also joined the Blues from Rangers over the summer - the fees for the pair coming to less than £1 million - and has already scored five goals to Garner’s four.
McCarthy admits he was surprised when he discovered that the 27-year-old was surplus to requirements at Ibrox.
"I remember Waggy playing against us for Leicester and they murdered us up there, they beat us 6-0 and he was outstanding. He played up front, he was great,” the Town boss recalled.
"And when I heard he was available, I thought it couldn’t be right. So we checked it out and he was and I’ve been delighted with them both.
"Why they’ve gone up to Rangers and they’ve not wanted to keep them, I don’t know, but we’ve been the very fortunate beneficiaries of that one.”