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Edwards To Miss Exeter Trip But Bishop, Rowe and Downes Back - Ipswich Town News

Winger Gwion Edwards will miss the first round Carabao Cup tie at Exeter City on Tuesday but Teddy Bishop and Danny Rowe are set to be in the squad for the first time this season and Flynn Downes is over the illness which saw him drop out of the party making the trip to Rotherham on Saturday.

"He’s due to train,” manager Paul Hurst said of Downes at his pre-match press conference. "I think he’s feeling better so he should be part of the squad tomorrow night.”

The Blues boss says Edwards is the only new injury problem ahead of the trip to Devon but with a problem which isn’t expected to keep him out of Saturday’s home match against Aston Villa.

"Just Gwion, he was feeling his quad a little bit at the end of last week going into the game but was fine,” he said.

"But he felt it again which was why he came off towards the end of the game on Saturday, so I don’t think we’ll be risking him tomorrow. But I don’t believe there should be any issue going into the weekend with that.”

Hurst says he will field a strong side against the League Two Grecians: "The team that I out out tomorrow night, I’d have no qualms about playing in a Championship game.

"That’s where I’m at, I’m not throwing any youth team players in or taking this game lightly, I want to win it. Whether we do or not we’ll see but the team I certainly believe will be good enough to win the game and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”

Hurst says that although he’s not going to be drafting any untried youngsters into the squad he will have Teddy Bishop and Danny Rowe, two of the club’s long-term injured, returning to the travelling party, the pair having impressed and scored - twice in Bishop’s case - in Wednesday’s behind-closed-doors U23s friendly against Cambridge.

"Teddy Bishop and Danny Rowe will travel with us,” the Town manager confirmed. "We’ll see how they go in training today, how they’re feeling generally.

"And those two could possibly be involved. I haven’t made an absolute decision on that but they will certainly come into the thinking obviously from the bench if they are involved, not from the start, they’re not at that point yet.”

He added: "Teddy is very well thought of and from what I can see rightly so. Clearly he’s had issues with his injuries but someone that - and I guess it’s a big if given his history - if we can keep him fit will be a good player for us.

"I’m sure Teddy wants to be fit. I’m sure he’s sick of not being available or in the treatment room far too often for everyone’s liking, but certainly a player.

"So I’m really hoping that we can get him out on that training pitch on a regular basis and I think he can do well for us.

"Danny I know quite a bit about anyway, I really liked him when he was at Macclesfield before he got his move. He did well in the game that we had against Cambridge, showed what he’s good at.

"So again it’s again just trying to build on his fitness and getting to a point where he could really be in contention. Both players I think can add certain qualities to the squad and the team.”

Hurst is pleased to have more players becoming available for selection: "I want everyone fit. And while that makes my life more difficult in terms of picking the team and the subs, I think any manager would rather be in that position than have people in the treatment room. I’m sure both lads would be delighted to be involved if that’s the case.”

He says Emy Huws is a little further behind Bishop and Rowe: "Yes, he is. He didn’t train on Saturday, he just felt a little bit more fatigue than anything.

"I understand he’s back out with us again today but out of those lads we’ve been speaking about he’s probably the furthest away from a return to first-team action but hopefully still moving in the right direction.”

However, Hurst says Tom Adeyemi remains no nearer a comeback due to the Achilles injury he picked up in pre-season having got ver the hamstring problem which ended his 2017/18 prematurely.

"Still a long way off looking like a return,” he said. "Progress seems to have halted really, he’s done little bits of work but nothing more than that but he’s certainly not one that’s in my thoughts from a fitness point of view.”

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