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Walton Starts After Palmer Ill in Warm-Up - Ipswich Town News

Town have been forced into a late change in goal for this afternoon's final game of the season against West Ham with Christian Walton coming into the team for Alex Palmer who was taken ill in the warm-up having initially made two changes with Conor Chaplin and Nathan Broadhead returning to the XI.

With Walton coming into the team, Cieran Slicker takes a place on the bench.

Chaplin, making his 150th league appearance for the Blues, is the number 10 with Julio Enciso absent from the squad with manager Kieran McKenna having said there has been illness in the camp at his press conference on Friday.

Broadhead is to Chaplin’s left with Jack Clarke, who was at Wembley to watch his former club Sunderland promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs yesterday, on the bench.

George Hirst again starts with Liam Delap set to make his final appearance for the club before his summer move from the bench, as will Massimo Luongo, who McKenna revealed is set to depart in the close season.

Centre-half Cameron Burgess is back on the bench having missed the trip to Leicester with a minor hamstring problem, as is lifelong West Ham fan Sammie Szmodics for the first time in three months after ankle surgery, but ex-Hammers full-back Ben Johnson is not included. Young left-back Somto Boniface is again among the substitutes.

Skipper Sam Morsy makes his 150th league start, Omari Hutchinson makes his 50th league start and Axel Tuanzebe makes his 50th Premier League appearance.

West Ham make five changes from the team which lost 2-1 at home to Nottingham Forest a week ago with keeper Lukasz Fabianski coming in for his final game for the club along with Konstantinos Mavrapanos, Ollie Scarles, Edson Alvarez and Niclas Fullkrug.

Ex-Blues left-back Aaron Cresswell, who will also make his final appearance for the Hammers if he gets onto the field, Alphonse Areola, Vladimir Coufal, Rodriguez and Mohamed Kudus all drop to the bench.

Town: Walton, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis, Morsy (c), Cajuste, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Broadhead, Hirst. Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Burgess, Boniface, Taylor, Luongo, Szmodics, Clarke, Delap. 

West Ham: Fabianski, Ward-Prowse, Fullkrug, Mavropanos, Alvarez, Bowen (c), Todibo, Kilman, Soucek, Wan-Bissaka, Scarles. Subs: Areola, Cresswell, Coufal, Paqueta, Kudus, Guilherme, Ings, Rodriguez, Irving. Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex). VAR official: Matt Donohue.

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