Town and Shrewsbury are reported to be close to agreeing a deal which would see Shrews pair Toto Nsiala and Jon Nolan move to Portman Road.
The Blues made a joint-bid understood to be £1.4 million on Tuesday which was rejected by the League One club, who were managed by Town boss Paul Hurst until he moved to Portman Road at the end of May.
The pair handed in transfer requests on Wednesday and yesterday were barred from training with their team-mates while their situations were sorted.
According to the Shropshire Star, talks between the clubs have progressed and a deal is now close to being agreed.
A Blues move for Nsiala and Nolan had been anticipated since Hurst took over at Portman Road with both key players in his Shrewsbury side which reached the League One play-offs last season.
The pair, who are both 26, were initially recruited by Hurst during his time as Grimsby manager from elsewhere in non-league, having previously been with the Everton academy. Nolan is contracted to the Shrews until the summer of 2020 and Nsiala until 2019.
Following his spell at Everton, Huyton-born Nolan spent time with Stockport County, Lincoln City and Wrexham (loan) before joining Hurst's Grimsby in January 2016 before moving on to Chesterfield that summer. A year later Hurst took him to Shrewsbury.
Nsiala, a DR Congo international born in Kinshasa, spent time on loan at Macclesfield and Accrington while with Everton before a spell with TDCS Dong Thap in Vietnam.
After returning to the UK, Nsiala, who was brought up in Liverpool from the age of 10 after a period living in Paris, joined Southport before playing for Hurst at Grimsby between 2014 and 2016. After half a season at Hartlepool he was reunited with his old boss at Shrewsbury in January 2017.