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McKenna: Cajuste's Trained All Week, Szmodics and Chaplin Still Out - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Kieran McKenna says midfielder Jens Cajuste has trained all week having been rested at Liverpool last weekend, but forwards Conor Chaplin and Sammie Szmodics remain unavailable for Saturday’s crunch home game against Southampton.

Cajuste was left out of the 20-man squad at Anfield, which McKenna confirmed was to manage the Swedish international’s load after a busy period.

"He had a couple of fatigue-related issues after playing Man City and Brighton in pretty short succession,” the Blues manager said.

"It wasn’t one particular injury, but he had a couple of niggles or stronger niggles, so we felt it was the right thing to protect him last week and not push his body any further because he’d done really well in terms of availability and thankfully he’s had a full training this week and he’s available for the squad.”

Regarding Szmodics (ankle) and Chaplin (knee), he added: "Sam Szmodics and Conor Chaplin are not going to be ready yet.”

Jack Clarke was left out of the squad last week but McKenna says that was simply down to numbers with new signings Jaden Philogene starting and Julio Enciso on the bench.

"Just the selection for a really difficult away game,” McKenna explained. "Jack’s still working really hard behind the scenes and is ready and available.

"We know we need good players and good options and good depth in those forward positions and I’m sure he’ll have his part to play.”

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