Town boss Paul Cook revealed that an unnamed member of his squad will miss Saturday’s home game against the MK Dons with illness, and was keeping his cards close to his chest regarding those injured, although confirmed centre-half George Edmundson is not quite ready and said he expects everyone to be fit to join in training in the free week following the AFC Wimbledon match.
Former Rangers man Edmundson is yet to feature in a squad since joining the Blues and Cook says tomorrow will come too soon for the 23-year-old, who it’s understood has been suffering with a hamstring problem, but he isn’t far away.
"He’s working very, very hard now, I would say it is the latter stages of his rehabilitation,” he said.
"I think we’ll be seeing George Edmundson in Ipswich shirt very, very soon, which will be great.”
Edmundson being available will give significant competition at centre-half, particularly once Toto Nsiala is over his hamstring injury.
"It’s something that we wanted at the club,” Cook said. "If you look at the competition for places around the team. Luke Woolfenden has played with four different central defensive partnerships in four games, and we’re looking for continuity.
"We haven’t had the same nine and 10 in any game we’ve played yet, and relationships are so important. It’s not me as a manager, I’ll always be as honest as I can.
"It’s not me appealing for time, we all know football today, through you guys and social media, the knives and the butchers circle, they don’t wait around long any more.
"But for me, as a manager, I just want to get everyone available, we haven’t seen Hayden Coulson and Kyle Edwards play together on the left-hand side.
"We haven’t see George Edmundson and Toto Nsiala play, we haven’t see Conor Chaplin and Macauley Bonne play, we haven’t seen Sone Aluko in the team.
"Our lists go on at the minute. For me as a manager, I just want to get a win on the board, I want to get up and running and I want to get everyone fit, and if we can do all that quickly, I’m sure it will be very much a different place.”
Chaplin is also understood to have a hamstring problem as is James Norwood, while Aluko has also suffered a knock. Wes Burns has also been absent for the last two games.
Asked whether he would like to get a settled side, Cook says that’s not been possible, revealing a player will miss out tomorrow.
"It’s impossible, it’s literally impossible,” he continued. "We’ve lost a lad to sickness now for two days that won’t start tomorrow. At the minute, we just keep making steps forward and steps back.
"And we all probably knew this, if we were really brutally honest. When you put a new team together like we have, the reality is that to expect them to just hit the ground running is probably a bit unrealistic.
"If you look back on the three games, any neutral would say that at some point in all three games we can only win that game.
"I think when we equalised against Morecambe, I think it would have been a fair assumption that we’d go on and win the game, I think at Burton Albion when we got the penalty you’re probably thinking it’s going to be our day.
"And then obviously when Macauley [Bonne] misses a chance on Tuesday night which you’d expect him to score. No one misses penalties and chances deliberately, this is football.
"We’ve just got to make sure those moments go our way. With the greatest respect now, and tomorrow will be a difficult game, we’re dominating games better, we’re in the ascendancy of possession better, we look a threat better, our fitness levels are better and the reality is that we’re just waiting for results to go our way.”
Pressed on who the ill player is Cook, laughed: "You’ve only got one of 11 so you’ve got a chance of guessing, haven’t you? It’s not George Edmundson is it, that’s for sure!”
After Saturday the Blues are without a midweek game but Cook says he’s looking more towards the following free week when he expects everyone to be available ahead of the game at Wycombe, a fixture we understand could be postponed due to Chairboys international calls.
"In my world, we look to after Wimbledon at home when we feel everyone will be fit and available, we’ll then be training for a full week for the first time going to Wycombe,” he said.
"So I think post-Wycombe will see us up and running. Whatever the results are from there, the most positives ones we can get the better, the more time we get together will only see us improve as a team and as a group of people together.”
Any plans to do any team-bonding? "We don’t have any time like that, I’m very much a manager who just believes in hard work on the training ground and repetition.
"Whatever experiences you gain on a football pitch, the reality is you’ll go through those experiences again.
"We will be winning 1-0 away from home again, we will be 1-0 down at home again, it’s how you learn from your experiences, especially the bad ones that make you stronger.
"Our lads are going through a learning curve at the minute, and they will learn. They will get better and they will be strong and on that day we will all be pleased with what see on the pitch.”