Town boss Mick McCarthy says skipper Luke Chambers, midfielder Cole Skuse and centre-half Christophe Berra all trained this morning and will be fine for Saturday’s game against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s, while new signing Kevin Foley will be in the squad if his international clearance has come through.

The trio were amongst the senior players not to make the trip to Portsmouth on Tuesday with Chambers having suffered a tight calf in the game against Preston, Skuse a hamstring problem and Berra requiring an injection for a shoulder injury.

“They’ve trained today, they’ve all got through a training session OK, so they’ll all be fine, thankfully,” McCarthy confirmed.

“Kevin Foley will be part of the squad that travels, providing he gets international clearance.

“He’s been training well, I’ve been delighted with him. He’s kept himself in good shape, he had the U21 game and he’s trained every day. He looks good.”

Centre-half Piotr Malarczyk is banned for one game following his red card on Tuesday.

Having exited the FA Cup following the 2-1 defeat at Fratton Park on Tuesday, McCarthy says some of his younger players could now go out on loan.

“Possibly, I think certainly Josh Emmanuel, who went out to Crawley and didn’t get enough football, and maybe Myles Kenlock,” he added.

“We’ll see with one or two of them. But we’ve got to get somebody who wants to take them, I can’t just put them out on loan. So, if I get the requests, I will consider some of them, of course.”

But the Blues boss still has no plans to add to his squad before the transfer window closes a week on Monday.

“I’m comfortable with the ones who’ll be coming back and playing against Birmingham, the team that we’ve got,” he said. "The first team squad’s good.”

Photo: Action Images

Mark added 18:52 - Jan 21 It's a relief without Berra, as I don't know what we would do if he didn't make it. I suppose we'd move Chambers to centre back and play Foley at right back? Foley has only played four games in the last year though (Copenhagen) so that feels somewhat risky. I am worried about lack of cover. What if two defenders get injured?!
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prebbs007 added 19:35 - Jan 21 Best squad for years ??? Can't get better than we have ??? Do me a favour Mick !!! Our SQUAD was embarrassing against a league two team twice. You yourself admitted that none of them gave u a selection headache !!! Joniesta available for loan and possibly going to MK Dons. Are you telling me Douglas Hyam Oar Toure Tabb Coke AMN are better than him ??????? You must be having a laugh. Every single club around us competing for top 6 are strengthening yet you rely on the below average journeymen pros who have massively overachieved for 2 seasons. Stick with out or position, lacking creativity, hard working, below championship ability players and we will again fall short. The evening standard last night ran an article saying EVERY premiership club next season is guaranteed a minimum of £96 million. Please someone explain to me why everyone is spending at least part of that in pursuit of promotion yet we sit there on our hands and pay £8k for a donkey from Poland 250k for a long throw muppet from Denmark and spend no money on quality ???? We are what we are an overachieving mid table championship club. I'm not sure if we should blame ME for not getting the cheque book out or MM for not using it. It's a joke with the rewards available for spending some money. !!!!! We rest the "stars" to win at Brum. Yeah good idea. We only have one star and he is not even our player. Madness. Without Didzy and Bish we have no quality outside of Frazer and if we make the playoffs Mick has worked miracles. Another 15 years of championship football beckons if we don't take the risk !!!!!!! p.s. essex57 downmark as normal .... tw&t

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runaround added 19:40 - Jan 21 Blimey JAS099 bit harsh to judge Foley before he has even played! He might not be good but only time will tell on that. The fee for a player doesn't always show how good or not he is
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wayway added 20:43 - Jan 21 Have you not realised by now that the Evans Corporation are no longer interested in I T F C and are only treating the club as a tax liability. There will be no investment in new players but we could be seeing players sold. Please don't try and kid me the Mings money has gone on wages because that is a load of drivel. Boring Billy is just biding his time and picking up his wages every month knowing his job is safe because nothing is expected of him and again knowing no one else would want a dinosaur of a manager. A very sad state of this once great and respected club.

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Tufty added 21:19 - Jan 21 Well if foleys in the squad all should be hunky dory - not
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GiveusaWave added 02:25 - Jan 22 Very harsh to judge Foley as he hasn't even come on as a sub yet. Can understand the criticism of Giles Coke, he has had way too much time in an ITFC shirt already. He looks the part but there is no way he should be playing in the National League. Portsmouth fans on mass pointing and laughing at his antics in the 2nd half says it all.
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harlingblue added 02:44 - Jan 22 Whatever team Mick picks needs to win, and to win over the fans that have been cheated in two cup competitions. I have been a season ticket holder for several years and a supporter all my life, but your best team should always play, if you get the odd injury to a regular, then just one or two are replaced, and it should not cause a problem. To put out a complete unit, not even tried in U21 games (what a joke that is) is not acceptable in a cup competition that we were so proud to have won.

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BrettenhamBlue added 04:23 - Jan 22 We are heavily reliant on our starting 11. If we have a few injuries we will be bringing on players who are nowhere near good enough. Hyam and Tabb are League 1 standard. Malarcyk, Digby and Toure should have League 2 written on their heads. At best Coke is an Isthmian Premier League player. Simply not good enough. We need a real RIGHT BACK. We need a CREATIVE MIDFIELDER and a PROPER replacement for Parr. That's bare minimum.

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Seasider added 11:56 - Jan 22 Well after throwing the cup game Mick is now gearing up his troops for the next battle on Saturday. There has been talk of resting first team players;but when this was put to Freddie Sears,he pointed out to interviewer that they had trained hard on the Tuesday and didn't put their feet up.However sounds as if this was done at home not on South Coast. Despite debacle earlier in the week,it doesn't look as though McCarthy has changed his mind about re-inforcements which is a pity,as others are;and as I pointed out previously there are nearly ten players in his squad not up to Championship standard,which MM more or less confirmed after the Portsmouth game.It makes one wonder if Mr Evans would make money available,as Mr Milne said or someone is telling porkies.

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