Blues boss Paul Lambert says right-back Josh Emmanuel has a big year coming up, Town having taken up the one-year option on the 21-year-old’s contract.
The academy product’s deal was set to be up in the summer but the Blues activated the additional season's option earlier this week.
Emmanuel, who spent the first half of the season on loan in League One with Shrewsbury having helped Rotherham win promotion from that division in 2017/18, has recently alternated with loanee James Bree at right-back with Jordan Spence having slipped out of the picture after regularly featuring in the role in the first months of Lambert’s time at Portman Road.
"It’s a chance, and that’s what it is, a chance to improve, and we need to see how he does so this is a big year for him and a massive season or him going forward,” the Town manager said regarding Emmanuel.
"He’s got to learn like everyone else that this is the way we play and he’s got to want to play that way.”
Will he be looking for another right-back to compete with one-time West Ham schoolboy Emmanuel?
"We’ll see because we’ve got lads out on loan as well,” he reflected. "Janoi [Donacien, on loan at Accrington] needs to come back, Luke [Woolfenden, at Swindon] needs to come back, so we’ll see once we’ve got everybody back then I’ll look at it.
"If I think we need a little bit of reinforcement somewhere, I’ll look at it.”