Emyr Huws is set to return to the Town squad for the first time this season when the Blues face Hull City at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday, while Teddy Bishop has also been impressing in training, however, Tom Adeyemi remains sidelined.
Huws, 24, who was signed from Cardiff in the summer after a successful loan spell last season, has been sidelined with an achilles injury since rejoining the club, while Bishop, 21, underwent hernia surgery in August.
Manager Mick McCarthy is delighted to have the Wales international, who has played in the last three U23s matches, available again.
"It’s good to have him back,” he said. "He and Teddy Bishop both played in the U23s at Millwall [last Friday], which I watched, and they’ve both trained this week.
"Both are getting into contention to play, however, it’s not U23s football we’re playing, we’re talking about Championship football, but we’ve a busy couple of weeks and certainly Emyr should be in contention for those games.
"Teddy, we’ll wait and see, but you can just see the ability of them when they train with us, the standard of the training, they’re just terrific.”
Reflecting on Huws’s goalscoring and creativity, he added: "If you can add goals from midfield to what we’re getting from the front players then it would be a real bonus for all of us.”
McCarthy says he’s not sure how many more U23s games Bishop will need before he’s ready to return to the first team, his last appearance having come at Rotherham in April.
"I couldn’t tell you how long he’s been out or the last time he played,” the Blues boss continued.
"But 45 minutes of an U23s game doesn’t constitute him being anywhere near ready for first-team action.
"He needs some football and more training to just get toughened up, battle ready and game ready and have that durability that you need.
"That’s what’s been lacking with him, there’s no way we can rush him back into it. But, wow, he’s trained really well.”
Another central midfielder Tom Adeyemi remains out with a hamstring problem: "He’s not in contention [for Hull]. I asked him today [regarding a timeframe] and he said probably Forest [on December 2nd].”
Better news is that Cole Skuse is fine having limped off during the 3-0 home win against Preston before the international break.
"Skusey’s fine, he took a really heavy knock and he’d got a brace on his leg and it looked far worse than it’s turned out to be,” McCarthy said.
"As I’ve said before, he is durable, he does play games and that still remains the same, thankfully.”
Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill cited a long-standing groin problem when he was explaining why David McGoldrick was left out of his final squad for the World Cup play-off against Denmark, but McCarthy says that’s nothing to get too worried about.
"That’s been ongoing for a while, but he’s OK,” he said. "That’s just a little niggle that’s just been there, nothing major.
"But if it gets just above that obviously he can’t play. But he’s all right, we’ve looked after him during the international break, he’s trained this week and he’ll be fine for Saturday.”"
Centre-half Tommy Smith, 27, suffered a calf injury while away with New Zealand - he missed the All Whites’ 2-0 second leg defeat in Peru in the early hours of this morning - but McCarthy says he wouldn’t have been involved at Hull anyway.
"Matt Byard has been speaking to him, I don’t generally speak to players about their injuries, I speak to the physiotherapist and they report to me.
"I don’t know [how significant the injury is]. He’s not in contention for Saturday, he doesn’t report back here until Friday morning, so irrespective of his injury he’s not available.
"But we’ve got plenty of games and I think having flown to New Zealand, then to Peru and then back, that’s probably not the preparation for Hull!”
McCarthy says midfielder Luke Hyam, who had knee surgery in September, is still some way off a return to action.
"Sadly he’s still in the treatment room, he’s not on the pitch yet. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”
#itfc midfielder, @andredozzell has been undergoing two weeks of intensive rehab at Cambridge University as he continues his recovery from ACL reconstruction! Great work, Andre 💪 pic.twitter.com/MYbYGNfdht
— Ipswich Town FC (@Official_ITFC) November 14, 2017
Meanwhile, Andre Dozzell has been undergoing a fortnight of intensive rehabilitation at Cambridge University as he continues his recovering following his cruciate knee ligament reconstruction in August.
The 18-year-old, who suffered the injury on the opening day, is expected to be out of action for the rest of the season.