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Hurst: Two Unnamed Doubts for Birmingham Trip - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Paul Hurst says two unnamed players are injury doubts ahead of Saturday’s trip to Birmingham City, while Andre Dozzell has made progress regarding his fitness but Emyr Huws suffered what’s hopefully a minor setback in training today.

"We’ve had a couple of knocks in training that could rule players out, so that might have to be a late call,” Hurst said.

"We are travelling tomorrow which is not ideal in terms of knowing exactly what we’re doing but we’ll see how they are.”

Willing to say who they are? "I can give you a really short answer there - no! No, sorry, things might change over the next 24 hours, we’ll see.

Regarding Andre Dozzell, still to make a competitive first-team appearance following last season's ruptured cruciate knee ligament, Hurst says he’s closer to involvement with the first team having impressed his manager in the 4-1 U23s victory over Coventry on Monday.

"He did well the other night, he had a little spell along with the team where they just drifted out of it and the pleasing bit was that then he finished stronger,” Hurst added.

"He’s moving in the right direction. His fitness side, he’s not a million miles away, which is pleasing.

"If we can get him involved, I’ve said from the start what I think of him as a player, so hopefully he might not be too far away.”

Wales international Huws had looked to have pushed on until today, Hurst said: "Emyr, I felt like we were having a really good week with him, his mindset has been very positive and then he’s come off training there and he’s saying he’s got a bit of swelling in the back of his knee and he’s not feeling too good about himself again.

""He got through training but I can’t say he’s on top of the world because he’s frustrated because there’s some swelling behind his knee.

"We’re doing better, we are doing better but it’s just getting to that point where he’s had two or three weeks’ training with nothing.

"And the U23s, we decided not to play him and just try and get some more training in him and it looked like it was going well until today, but we’ll see how he is this afternoon and in the morning.”

Aside from Jon Walters, who has returned to Burnley for treatment on the achilles injury whcih has curtailed his loan spell, Teddy Bishop is around a week away from a return to training following his hamstring problem, while Tom Adeyemi is back out running but some way off getting back in match action.

"While it might seem a strange thing to say in some respect, it’s good that people are fit and available,” Hurst said regarding the injury situation overall.

"When you’re flying I expect that, but when you’re at the other end of the league it’s very easy to go, ‘I’ll just give it a little bit longer or I’ll take a step back or I just felt that little niggle, I don’t quite fancy it this weekend because things aren’t going too well'.

"Again that’s a credit to the players individually and hopefully in terms of what we’re trying to create, that mentality to push on.

"You always have adversity, it’s how you deal with that and respond to that. And that’s what we’re looking for, people to step up and want to make a difference out on that pitch.”

With Walters injured, Hurst no longer has to pick a loanee to drop out of the matchday squad with Janoi Donacien coming back into the picture for Saturday having been the player to miss out.

"Yes, he does,” the Blues boss added. "And he was the one that was unlucky last week.

"In fairness I thought he did well, particularly his one v one defending against a difficult opponent in that second half against Brentford and showed what he can do. That’s one thing that has been taken away but I’d rather still have that problem.”

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