Town have named a very young side for this afternoon’s behind-closed-doors U23s game against Cardiff City at Playford Road (KO 1pm), perhaps notably ahead of this evening’s EFL Trophy tie against Gillingham in which manager Paul Lambert has said he will name a youthful team.
Missing from the last U23s team are the likes of left-back Tommy Smith, centre-half Elkan Baggott, midfielders Liam Gibbs, Allan Viral and Ross Crane and strikers Ben Folami (pictured), Zak Brown and Tyreece Simpson.
Central defender Corrie Ndaba, who missed the last U23s game due to injury, and midfielder Brett McGavin are also not named in the XI.
One man who might have hoped for involvement at right-back this evening who is included this afternoon in what otherwise is virtually an U18s team is Barry Cotter.
The trialist may well be Jesse Nwabueze, who has been with the club since pre-season and netted a penalty in the recent 3-2 friendly victory over Norwich City. The Nigerian wideman was previously at Crystal Palace.
U23s: White, O'Reilly, Humphreys, Healy, Stewart, Armin, Cotter, Cutbush, Trialist, Chiwera, Osbourne. Subs: Ridd, Wyss, Alexander, Kabongolo, Bareck.