Town boss Mick McCarthy is “quietly hopeful” that striker Joe Garner will be fit enough to start Sunday’s East Anglian derby at home to Norwich City, while midfielder and former Canary Tom Adeyemi has trained and is also expected to be OK.
Garner missed last week’s 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United due to a knee injury with McCarthy saying afterwards that he was "quietly hopeful" that the former Rangers man would be fit for the derby.
And speaking at lunchtime the Town boss said his confidence that the 29-year-old will be ready has increased over the course of the week.
"I’m slightly more quietly hopeful that he’s going to be all right for the derby,” he said.
"He’s trained today, not with us but he’s been out and he’s trained with the physios and he’s done what he needed to do to be out with us tomorrow morning to have a chance of playing.
"He is one of the characters, despite the fact he’s been out for a couple of weeks, if he’s fit, he’s injury free, he’ll be alright to play.”
McCarthy admits that he has no one in his squad who plays quite the same role as Garner: "There isn’t a like-for-like replacement at all. He’s a really important player for us.
"I thought he would be when I signed him, he’s turned out to be that, he’s probably impressed me more than [I expected]. I knew he was a good player but as a footballer he’s better than I thought he was, which is always nice.
"If we’d have been playing on Friday night then he would have struggled, even tomorrow he’s going to be out with us [for the first time]. As I said, if he’s OK, if he’s injury free, he’ll be fine to play.”
One hint that Garner is set to be OK to play against the Canaries is 18-year-old striker Ben Folami’s involvement with the U23s at QPR this afternoon. The Australian, who has netted seven times for Gerard Nash’s side this season, travelled with the first-team squad to South Yorkshire last week as cover for Garner.
McCarthy says midfielder Tom Adeyemi is also likely to face Norwich, where he came through the youth system before playing a handful of first-team games, following the hamstring injury he suffered in the warm-up ahead of the Bristol City match three weeks ago.
"He’s trained, he’s trained really well for the last few days and again I think he’s passing himself fit to be involved,” the Town manager added.
"As long as he’s has had no reaction to his training for the last two days come tomorrow morning then he should be fine.”
However, midfielder Teddy Bishop is not ready to make his return having undergone hernia surgery in August, while defender Tommy Smith has suffered a minor niggle.
"He’s not trained with the first team yet,” McCarthy said regarding Bishop. "Tommy Smith had a bit of a back spasm yesterday, he came in but he’ll be alright. Whether he’s going to be fit for Sunday or not is another matter.”
"The Blues boss says winger Danny Rowe will be in the squad against the Canaries and despite the January signing from Macclesfield’s lack of involvement so far this season is not yet considering sending him out on loan.
"I’ve not had that discussion with him or his agent, who I know really well, and they’d be the first people I’d speak to if that was going to be the case,” he said.
"I think he still has designs on pushing and getting into the team but there have been people in front of him. He’s played well in the U23s, so he’s part of my 18-man squad on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy says there is better news regarding Emyr Huws, who has been out since pre-season with an achilles injury: "He’s been out training this week, so he’s doing OK.”
Midfielders Luke Hyam (knee surgery) and Andre Dozzell (torn cruciate knee ligament) remain sidelined.