Blues boss Kieran McKenna believes midfielder Dominic Ball is going to have a big part to play at Portman Road this season, the summer signing having had a frustrating start to the campaign due to injury.
Ball, 27, who joined the club after leaving QPR, picked up an ankle injury close to the end of pre-season and had to wait for his Town debut.
However, the one-time Tottenham trainee has impressed in his two Papa Johns Trophy starts, in the 6-0 hammering of Northampton and Tuesday’s 2-0 win against Arsenal’s U21s in which he scored the opening goal and assisted the second for Freddie Ladapo, and two League One sub appearances.
"He had a really good pre-season, I have to say, and was looking really strong and getting better game by game,” McKenna said.
"He picked up his injury at an unlucky time and a difficult time for him personally because I think he’d done nearly the whole pre-season and it was the last week when he picked up his injury.
"He was a few weeks coming back from that and then, of course, it takes you a few extra weeks to get your rhythm and get up to speed and he’s certainly been doing that.
"He’s been improving session by session in training and put in a very good performance the other night to back up his good performance against Northampton.
"I’m just delighted to have him here, he’s such a good professional and a good member of the squad, an important member of the squad, who we think is going to have a big part to play this season.”