Midfielder Tom Adeyemi has been ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United but Tommy Smith will return to the squad, David McGoldrick is fine despite having come off in Town’s last league fixture at home to Bristol City a fortnight ago and Teddy Bishop continues to make progress.
Manager Mick McCarthy, speaking at this lunchtime’s press conference, confirmed that Adeyemi, who picked up his injury minutes before the start of the Robins clash, won’t be in the squad facing the Blades.
"No, he’s not, he tweaked his hamstring in the warm-up and Tristan had to step in and he did very well, actually,” McCarthy said.
"He’s still having treatment, he’s looking at Monday for training, so he’ll be looking at the Norwich game, I think.”
McCarthy says striker McGoldrick is fine despite coming off in the second half against Bristol City and not featuring for the Republic of Ireland during the international break.
"He’s OK, he just felt it tight against Bristol City and bearing in mind the problems he’s had with his hamstring, it was prudent to come off,” he said. "He certainly didn’t want to tear it like he did last year when he was out for a long time.
"And he went and had a scan, there was no damage to it but it had started to tighten up. So he’s OK, he’s fine, he’s trained this week, he’s in good shape thankfully.”
McCarthy says the 28-year-old, who has already scored six goals this season, is a key man for his team and is playing as well as he ever has for the Blues.
"I don’t know if he’s played any better since he’s been here,” the Town boss enthused. "Maybe when he had a spell when he was in his pomp with Murph, the two of the up front.
"And then the pair of them had injuries for a long time and we never had that same partnership for a while. He’s been very good this season.”
Midfielder Tristan Nydam is also OK, despite being pulled out of the England U19s squad with a minor groin problem, while central defender Tommy Smith is over his hamstring problem and having played two games for the U23s will be in the squad which makes the trip to South Yorkshire.
"Tommy will travel, pretty much everybody who is fit will travel, my usual 18 players and two keepers,” McCarthy added.
With Adam Webster also now back from injury the Town boss will have decisions to make at the back for the first time this season in the weeks to come.
"It’s a better decision to make than having to scratch around,” he said. "As somebody said to me the other day, ‘It’s better looking at ‘em than for ‘em’.”
He added: "When you get defenders back you always hope that you’ll concede fewer goals and if you get strikers back you’d hope you’d score more. Just exactly that with the two coming back.”
Webster came on as a sub against the Robins but his last league start was back in January and McCarthy says it’s been frustrating that the 22-year-old’s involvement has been limited by a series of ankle injuries.
"He looked a really good signing, he is a good player,” he reflected. "It’s such a shame for us, for the club and for the fans not to have seen him because he really was thriving in the league. And I think everybody was enjoying watching him play.
"But it’s such a shame for him as well because I think he would have been attracting a lot of attention, I think, had he been playing for the last 12 months consistently.”
Were people starting to keep tabs on the former Portsmouth man? "I’ve no idea in terms of individual clubs coming to look, but of course there were because he was being talked about. The reports were going out, even in the press, just about how he was playing.
"It doesn’t go unnoticed that, people start to watch. I was speaking very highly of him, he’s a good player.”
McCarthy says the former England U19 international’s composure on the ball adds something to his side, although in the short-term, with the Blues having conceded 16 goals in their 10 Championship games so far this season, he wants him concentrating on defending.
"He does, but if he gets in he wants to keep it out of our net this weekend because we’ve been conceding. Maybe concentrating on that for a wee while might help,” he added.
Midfielder Emyr Huws remains sidelined with his achilles problem, but Teddy Bishop is progressing after his August groin operation.
"Emyr Huws is still struggling on with that achilles so is no nearer training as far as I’m aware. He must be a bit nearer training, I’d like to think so, but he’s really having a tough time with that,” McCarthy continued.
"Bish, though, is out on the grass and I think I said a couple of weeks ago when I asked him how he was he said, ‘I’m great!’.
"That’ll do for me, I left it at that, I’m not going to interrogate him any more, it’s not that often I’ve had that response from Bish and again today he’s just said exactly the same, he feels really good.”
However, he says Huws is more frustrated not to have been involved since signing for the Blues on a permanent basis from Cardiff in the summer after last season’s successful loan spell.
"We all saw what a very talented player he is and the contribution he made at the end of last season, so I was really excited signing him and was looking forward to him playing,” McCarthy said.
"And, of course, he was as well, I think everybody was. That’s tough on all of us, but more so on Emyr, of course.”
Andre Dozzell (cruciate) and Luke Hyam (knee surgery) also remain on the sidelines at present.