Town boss Kieran McKenna says his squad has no new injuries going into Sunday’s East Anglian derby against Norwich City at Portman Road.
Only Wes Burns, who is around a month away from a return from an ACL injury, and Conor Townsend, out for the whole campaign with the same issue, are absent.
"No, squad’s in a good place, everyone came through the other night OK,” McKenna said.
Last Saturday, Harry Clarke, who had been out with a knee injury, Cameron Humphreys, who had had a calf problem, and Fin Barbrook, who has featured only once since joining Lincoln City on loan all featured in the U21s as they impressively beat Liverpool 3-2 at Playford Road.
First-team players have rarely featured for the U21s in recent years even when coming back from injury and McKenna was asked whether the step up to category one means that senior players gain more from playing in John McGreal and Chris Casement’s side.
"It’s not just that, but I think Cam Humphreys will have done,” he said. "He’s developed now and he’s a first-team player in his own right.
"It’s not like we would never have done it. I remember Richard Keogh and Kane Vincent-Young playing in a U21s game away at Peterborough a few years ago, so it’s not the only time.
"But if you’re playing against Liverpool or a really strong academy then that guarantees the strength of the game a little bit more, maybe guarantees the quality of the pitch or the surface. Things like that are important.
"I don’t think it’s something that we’ll use every week, we’ll still back our training programme to get the players as fit as they need to be, but in certain instances or in different circumstances it’s useful to have that fixture list to use it for some of our players when they need minutes.”