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McGreal: A Couple Have Had to Drop Out After Coming into Close Contact - Ipswich Town News

Interim Town boss John McGreal says a couple of players have had to drop out of the squad ahead of Saturday’s home game with Sunderland having come into close contact with people with Covid but there have been no positive tests.

The weekend fixture list has been decimated by Covid but McGreal says the Blues are relatively unaffected going into the match.

"We’ve got a couple of people who have been in close contact so they have to come out of the squad, but apart from that we’re quite fine,” he said at his final pre-match press conference in charge of Town.

"We’ve done everything that we can with the protocols, the club is in a great position. There are two or three to a lot of the dressing rooms here, so it’s all spread out, the meetings are spread out and kept within 15 minutes.

"Even the other night [at Barrow], we went up on the two coaches and there were face masks everywhere. We’re doing the best that we can.

"Obviously there are a lot of games off but it’s a testament to our club really that our game’s still on.

"We’ve still got a lot of players that we can choose from, we’ve got a big squad to choose from. It’s all systems go on our behalf.”

The Blues have been without Wes Burns (hamstring), Hayden Coulson, Bersant Celina and Bailey Clements in recent games, while Jon Nolan is a long-term absentee and Toto Nsiala looked to pick up a knock on Wednesday evening.

Asked whether he was able to say whether anyone was back from injury, McGreal said: "Not really! I keep everything close. There are a lot of players to choose from, that’s the big thing. We have got a big squad to choose from.

"There are things we’ve worked on this morning and we’ll go with a team that fits and suits and we think can get the three points.”

Town have had a lot of travelling over the last week with Saturday’s trip to Wigan followed by Wednesday’s FA Cup visit to Barrow with the squad flying from Stansted to Manchester while making their way to Cumbria.

Quizzed on whether he thinks that will have any impact on the players, McGreal responded: "None, to be quite honest. It shouldn’t do. The club provided the best travelling facility to get us up and down from Barrow.

"They’ve recovered quite well yesterday, we put on a training session today and they’re really bright.

"And also they’ve got the added bonus of knowing that there’s a full capacity nearly at Portman Road. If that doesn’t get you going and that doesn’t get you running around, then maybe the some of the guys are in the wrong game, because it’s all to play for on our behalf.”

It's understood not all the members of the Blues ownership who were due at tomorrow's game have made the trip due to the current situation regarding air travel.

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