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No Update on Luongo But McKenna Hoping For Early January Deals - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Kieran McKenna was unable to give any update on trialist midfielder Massimo Luongo at his lunchtime press conference but hopes the Blues are able to make early additions during the January transfer window.

TWTD revealed that former Blues loanee Luongo was training at Playford Road 10 days ago with the 30-year-old's short-term Middlesbrough contract up in January.

The Australian international joined Boro in the summer but hasn’t played a minute and has only been on the bench twice.

"Massimo’s contract is still running for another week or so at Middlesbrough, so I think that’ll be the time to update on that one,” McKenna said when asked if there was any news on Luongo’s situation.

Quizzed on whether fans can expect early signings when the window opens, McKenna said: "It’s out of our control. We would love to, of course. The club are working really hard on some individuals and on some deals but it’s not in your control the timing of it and whether these things get over the line or not.

"We have to be consistent with our targets and the profiles that we want. We’ve identified those and the club are working very hard behind the scenes and we’d love to have those additions in for the very start of January if possible, but it’s a case of wait and see on that matter.”

He added: "We want to bring in players early. Of course, there are a lot of games in January and the sooner you can get players in they can start to contribute to those games, but also be ready to contribute to the second half of the season.

"So, I think any business that we are going to do, we'd like to do it as early as possible. I know that [CEO] Mark [Ashton] and the recruitment team are working really hard on that behind the scenes and are doing everything they can to make that happen.

"Of course, it's not easy and a lot of things are out of your control in any window and especially in the January window, there are so many moving parts.

"We have players coming back from injury and as soon as we've got the players back, we've now had this sickness bug in the camp for seven days or so, which has made it not easy.

"I think once we get through the next few days, then hopefully, we have a little bit of a pause of league action and we have good bodies back, and hopefully we'll be in a strong position in terms of the squad for the second half of the year.”

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