Right-back Dominic Iorfa is expected to be fine for Tuesday’s trip to Derby County despite limping off in the second half of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa, but centre-half Tommy Smith and midfielder Tom Adeyemi remain sidelined.
"He’s OK, I think,” manager Mick McCarthy said of Iorfa. "I’m saying, I think. He cramped up. I don’t think he’s damaged the muscle. Everyone was asking me afterwards, ‘Has he done his hamstring?’. I said I wouldn’t know until I checked up with him.
"But it was more cramp than anything, so unless he’s had any adverse affects today, which I haven’t seen as yet - they’re in later and we’ll be travelling later on - I won’t know. I’ll find out in a while.”
Iorfa seems likely to be left out of the starting XI at Pride Park anyway with McCarthy having been pleased with the form of another of his right-backs, Jordan Spence, in recent matches.
"I thought Jordan Spence was terrific against Sheffield Wednesday, I thought he had a really good game,” the Blues boss continued. "He’d had two good games, but I thought against Sheffield Wednesday he did, certainly.
"I didn’t leave him out because he’d done anything wrong, he scored the equaliser at Hull, of course. It was just a case of putting in some fresh legs. Those full-backs have got to gallop up and down those wings.”
Smith isn’t yet ready to return after suffering a calf injury while away with New Zealand, while Adeyemi is still out with his hamstring problem.
"Tommy was saying he was hoping to be out on the pitch, on the training ground but they’re just holding him back. I think the last thing that you want to do is aggravate a calf injury,” the Blues boss added.
"And likewise with Tom Adeyemi. He said he was looking at the Forest game but that’s not the case now, it’s going to be beyond that.”
McCarthy says no one else suffered a knock at the weekend:"No, with regarding to injuries, we’ve actually got a couple back in terms of getting Emyr and Bish back, that’s positive. And everybody else, they’re all OK.”
David McGoldrick is expected to be out for around a month with the gash to his groin he suffered in the 2-2 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, while Luke Hyam and Andre Dozzell are both long-term absentees having undergone knee surgery.