Town forward Marcus Harness is set to undergo surgery in the next few days on the injury he suffered during Tuesday’s Papa Johns Trophy tie against his former club Portsmouth at Portman Road and is facing eight-to-10 weeks on the sidelines.
The 26-year-old was helped from the pitch in obvious discomfort in the 24th minute of the Blues' defeat to Pompey with manager Kieran McKenna admitting afterwards that the injury didn’t "look great on first viewing”.
Harness, who cost the Blues around £450,000 when he joined from Portsmouth in the summer, is understood to have suffered a bucket handle meniscus tear to the cartilage in his knee. He will go under the knife in the next few days and is expected to be out for up to 10 weeks with his return anticipated at the end of January or early February.
A bucket handle meniscus tear is when the meniscus, a C-shaped wedge of cartilage, is ripped away from its attachments at back of the knee and flips forward into the front of the knee like a bucket handle.
Harness’s absence is a further blow to the Blues, who already have Sone Aluko, Lee Evans, Dominic Ball and Tyreece John-Jules out with longer-term injuries.