Town boss Kieran McKenna admits the Blues are in a “difficult spot” regarding player availability ahead of Saturday’s game at Newcastle with up to 10 players potentially sidelined.
Aro Muric, Wes Burns, Chieo Ogbene, Sammie Szmodics and Jaden Philogene are all long-term absentees but with a number of other players having picked up fitness issues more recently.
"We’re in a challenging spot in terms of availability, to be honest,” McKenna said. "I’m not going to go through every single one because I’d probably be naming the fit players that we have left to Newcastle, which would be naming our team.
"We’re in a really difficult spot in terms of availability and we’re working really hard to get a team and a squad together that can go there and be as competitive as we can be.
"We’re still going to be waiting on a few right until tomorrow and we’ll try and make the right decisions and hopefully we’ll have enough to be competitive.”
Conor Townsend missed last week’s home game with Arsenal due to a hamstring injury and will miss out again, while McKenna says a decision will be made on how much involvement Liam Delap, who has come off the bench in the last two matches due to a rib problem, can have against the Magpies.
"Conor’s not fit, so he’s unavailable,” McKenna continued. "Liam, a decision to be made. He’s better again this week, so we’ll see what’s appropriate.”
The Blues boss confirmed that Kalvin Phillips (achilles) and Nathan Broadhead (thigh) both remain unavailable but McKenna wouldn’t be pushed any further when quizzed on Omari Hutchinson (hamstring).
In addition to the injuries, Leif Davis misses out on a game at St James’ Park against the team he supported as a boy and McKenna says the left-back is unsurprisingly gutted.
"He is, but it is what it is,” he said. "He’s still a young player, young in his career, so his determination will be, like the rest of the boys, to make sure that this isn’t the last time that Ipswich are going to St James’ in a league game. That will be the focus.
"But he’s disappointed to miss three games, he wants to help the team and we could do with him, so that’s going to be a challenge.”
McKenna included 19-year-old left-back Somto Boniface, a January signing from Chelsea, on the bench against the Gunners and although a debut from the start seems unlikely, the Londoner again looks set to be in the squad, perhaps alongside other U21s regulars with forward Tommy Taylor having been an unused sub for the FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest.
"You always want to give those opportunities when they’re there and when they’re earned, so it was nice in one way to have Somto available,” McKenna continued.
"Of course, you don’t want to see any of the senior players miss out and it’s still important to respect the fact that every Premier League appearance is important to this group of players and it would be unfair or inappropriate to give out appearances without them having been earned.
"But Somto is a very good young player, he’s not been with us at the football club for too long, but he’s made a really good impression. Fitted into that group well, has done well in training, so you’re happy to give those opportunities when they arise.
"In terms of opportunities for players going forward, as is the case at most clubs, you’re most ready players to step into the first team are usually on loan if they’re not with your first-team group already.
"We’ve got some good players out on loan who will come back into the reckoning in pre-season and come and have another look with the first-team squad and we’ll make decisions who are right around them and the likelihood is that a lot of the boys who are doing well in the U21s now will look to take their next steps and that will usually be a loan move. There are always exceptions to that, but that’s usually the case.
"Where the squad is at the moment, there will be young players involved from the academy at the weekend and possibly in the next few weeks, and that’s good experience for them.”