Forward Sammie Szmodics is a doubt for Friday’s live Sky game against Sheffield United at Portman Road having pulled out of the Republic of Ireland squad with a swollen ankle, while Marcelino Nunez, Harry Clarke and Cameron Humphreys are all back in training after injuries.
Szmodics was forced to miss the Boys in Green’s game in Armenia due to the injury but manager Kieran McKenna isn’t ruling the 29-year-old out of the Blades match.
"He’s recovering,” McKenna said. "We don’t know yet for Friday night, he had some swelling on the ankle he had his surgery on in the summer after the game, so it would have been impossible for him to have been involved with Ireland.
"He hasn’t trained with us yet, but he’s back doing some work with the rehabilitation coaches, so we’re going to make an assessment on it in the morning.
"He’s obviously not missed a lot of time, so it’s not impossible that he could play, but we’ll have to see how he recovers from the work he did today.”
Regarding Nunez, who joined from Norwich late last month with an ankle problem, he confirmed the Chilean is ready to make his debut: "Yes, he trained from Monday onwards with the group this week. He’s missed a few weeks but he’s ready to be involved.
"He’s a high quality player, an experienced player. He’s a player with real quality, you can see the quality there and he’s definitely going to bring some good things to us.”
Harry Clarke hurt his knee in pre-season, while Humphreys recently suffered a calf issue but the pair have returned to training.
"Both back with the group, both have trained this week, so really positive,” McKenna continued. "The squad’s looking really, really strong, I have to say. Health is good and spirit’s been excellent over the last few days, especially since yesterday when the whole group got back together. We’re in a pretty good place.”
The players away on international duty returned yesterday and McKenna says that will be a factor when looking at a team for Friday’s match.
"Lots of things come into your thinking, to be fair,” he reflected. "That’s one of them. But, at the same time, you know players aren’t going to be here, so you don’t really start your detailed preparation when you have important players away until everybody’s back together.
"You do start working on some things and you try and take it all into account. We’ll try and make the right decisions for tomorrow night.”