Town manager Kieran McKenna believes Aro Muric could still have a part to play at Portman Road as he closes in on a return from injury, while revealing Scotland international Cieran Slicker wasn’t on the pre-season trip to Austria as he is looking at loan options.
Muric, 26, joined the Blues last summer from Burnley for an initial £10 million plus a further £5 million in add-ons, but endured a tough season, making a number of high profile and costly mistakes before picking up a shoulder injury which required surgery in March.
The Kosovo international was in Austria with the rest of the squad but wasn’t involved in this afternoon’s friendly against Blau-Weiß Linz, which the Blues won 4-1.
"Aro’s just still working back from his injury, really,” McKenna explained. "He’s back in some training now but is still getting there. He’s really not far away, so the [goalkeeping] unit looks really strong.”
While Alex Palmer and Christian Walton played a half each against the Austrian Bundesliga side, McKenna had praise for his newest keeper, David Button, 36, who joined on a one-year deal earlier this month, while another of his glovesmen stayed behind in Suffolk.
"David Button’s had a great impact, I have to say, a top, top goalkeeper, he has made a great impact straight away,” McKenna said.
"Cieran Slicker’s looking at options for loans, so all being well, with David coming in, the plan will be for him to go and get some first-team experience this year, which he’s definitely ready for and get some games.
"We’ll see how that pans out over the next few weeks but it feels like a really strong department at the moment.”
Quizzed on whether Muric could still play a part going forward, despite speculation he could move on this summer, McKenna said: "Everything’s possible. Aro’s a really, really talented goalkeeper. He showed that in spells last year and in certain games last year.
"We have four senior goalkeepers at the moment and pre-season is there for people to compete and we need at least three really strong senior goalkeepers in the building. We’ll see how it plays out over the remainder of the summer.”