Jack Lankester is handed his first league start since January 2019 and Stephen Ward and Oli Hawkins return to the side as manager Paul Lambert makes four changes for this afternoon’s game against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank with Teddy Bishop also back in the XI.
Lankester missed the best part of a season and a half after two stress fractures to his back and has made one EFL Trophy start and two League One sub appearances so far this season.
The 20-year-old comes in on the right of the front three with Alan Judge dropping out having complained of a hamstring problem earlier in the week.
Ward returns at left-back for Myles Kenlock, who drops to the bench, having missed the last three League One matches with the achilles problem he suffered in the visit to the MK Dons.
Bishop takes over from Emyr Huws in midfield with the Welshman among the subs, while striker Hawkins, who came on in the second half as the Blues lost 4-1 at Doncaster on Tuesday having missed the 2-0 victory over Accrington with a groin problem, replaces Freddie Sears, who is also on the bench. Town pair James Wilson and Jon Nolan are facing their former club.
Lincoln make two changes from the team which beat Plymouth 2-0 at Sincil Bank on Tuesday with ex-Blues loanee Tayo Edun and Harry Anderson coming into the team for Sean Roughan and Tom Hopper.
Former Town striker David Johnson’s son Brennan, who is on loan from Nottingham Forest, starts for the Imps.
Lincoln: Palmer, Eyoma, Montsma, Walsh, Edun, Bridcutt, McGrandles, Jones, Anderson, Grant, Johnson. Subs: Ross, Hopper, Scully, Archibald, Soule, Gotts, Roughan.
Town: Holy, Chambers (c), Nsiala, Wilson, Ward, Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop, Lankester, Edwards, Hawkins. Subs: Cornell, McGuinness, Woolfenden, Kenlock, Huws, Bennetts, Sears. Referee: Kevin Johnson (Weston-super-Mare).