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McKenna: Evans to Miss Out, Burns and Luongo Back in Training and to Be Assessed - Ipswich Town News

Midfielder Lee Evans has been ruled out of Saturday’s big third-v-first clash with Sheffield Wednesday at Portman Road with the knee injury he suffered at Cambridge last week with Town as yet unsure how significant the problem might be, while manager Kieran McKenna will make a late call on Wes Burns and former Owl Massimo Luongo, who are back in training having missed the trip to Burnley in midweek.

Evans was subbed at half-time at the Abbey Stadium having picked up the knock during the first half.

"Lee is not going to be available, he got an issue with his knee during the Cambridge game, so he’s not available tomorrow,” McKenna said.

"We don’t know the severity of it yet. We’ll have that assessed again over the next few days.

"Massimo and Wes have trained with the group and we’re going to have to make a judgement call on their availability for tomorrow.

"They’ve missed a little bit of time, so we’ll have to make a decision regarding tomorrow with, of course, Tuesday [when Town travel to Bristol Rovers] coming round in quick succession as well.”

McKenna says he usually picks his team the day before a match but that that can change if players are touch and go for inclusion.

"I think usually on the Friday, but sometimes when you have a two-game week and you have a few players with injury issues you want to give them as long as possible, so sometimes you wait the extra 24 hours,” he said.

"But the typical process is to decide on a Friday but we always give ourselves that little bit of extra time with any injury doubts if we feel like they’re going to have an important impact on the game.”

Meanwhile, forward Tyreece John-Jules is edging closer to returning to training with the Blues having undergone hamstring surgery in November.

"He’s not been back yet, we’re hoping he’ll be back with us soon,” McKenna added. "He’s just getting his last bits cleared and finished at Arsenal and then we look forward to having him back.”

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