Town boss Kieran McKenna says there’s “nothing in the air” regarding Omari Hutchinson’s future with the forward having remained behind in Suffolk to train while the Blues were in Aberdeen for this evening’s 3-1 friendly victory.
Premier League Brentford matched the £35 million relegation release clause in Hutchinson’s contract before the recent deadline but failed to offer payment terms which would have triggered it.
However, the West Londoners, who last week sold forward Bryan Mbeumo to Manchester United for a reported £70 million, are expected to come back in for the former Chelsea man with some reports claiming the Blues want £40 million for his services.
Asked why Hutchinson wasn’t with the squad today, McKenna confirmed TWTD’s report that he was back at Playford Road training having been given an extended break after winning the Euros with the England U21s.
"Just a little bit too soon, we’re just building him up gradually, it’s just over three weeks since he played 110 minutes or something like that at the end of a five-game tournament, so he doesn’t need match minutes yet,” McKenna said.
"He’s had a few days’ training this week and hopefully he’ll be in and around one or both of the games next week.”
Quizzed on whether he has spoken to him about his future, McKenna smiled: "Me and Omari talk all the time, we’ve got a lovely relationship, we talk about everything.”
Is the situation up in the air at the moment? "No, there’s nothing in the air, he’s an Ipswich player and he’s training well back at camp and he’ll be ready to join the group next week and we think he’ll be a really important player this year.”
McKenna says it’s yet to be decided whether the former Chelsea man will feature in Tuesday’s friendly against Charlton at Colchester.
"We have to have those conversations, we’ll see how he’s responded to the few days’ training,” he said.
"He’s trained since we’ve been up here, so we’ll see how he’s responding but I would have thought next week we’ll get him in and around it.”