Town boss Paul Lambert has revealed midfielder or full-back Luke Garbutt is back in training following the knee injury which has sidelined the on-loan Everton man since his blistering two goals in two games start to his time at Portman Road.

Lambert says he’s not yet sure whether the 26-year-old is ready to return to his squad ahead of Saturday's home game against Doncaster but has done well at Playford Road in recent days.

“He’s trained for the last couple of days, he trained fully the other day and did really well, so he’s not too far from it,” Lambert said.

“I’m happy he’s back, he started the season fantastically for us. I’m glad he’s, he’ll be another really good player in different positions.”

Also back in action this week were Toto Nsiala and Ben Folami, who played in Monday’s U23s defeat to Nottingham Forest following hamstring and achilles injuries respectively.

“They’ve done fine, the lads,” Lambert added. “The squad is getting stronger and lads coming back from injury is a bonus.

“Maybe not quite up to speed for first-team level at the minute but the great thing is that they’re back out there and that’s the pleasing thing.”

Striker Will Keane was also involved in that match but Lambert isn’t convinced the former Hull City man is ready for his first team yet.

“I’m not sure. He’s done OK. He had a really bad injury at Sheffield United. I’ll wait and see how he is,” he continued.

Lambert says Emyr Huws is still continuing his progress having played his first full competitive 90 minutes against Tottenham's U21s in the Leasing.com Trophy.

“He’s doing well, he’s doing alright, he trained again the other day. We just have to get him through games at the minute," the Blues boss said.

“He’s doing really well and hopefully he does have a sustained period where he can keep going Saturday, Saturday, Saturday or Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.

“I think he’s still a wee bit off that just because of the time he’s been out but he’s doing really, really well.”

Lambert is still waiting on one or two players who were away on international duty: “A couple of lads are still not back yet, so they’ll comeback tomorrow and we’ll see how we are.”

Among those who has been away on international duty is Armando Dobra, who won two caps with the Albanian U19s.

Asked whether the 18-year-old, who impressed in the defeat of the Spurs youngsters prior to joining up with the Albania squad, is close to a League One debut, Lambert said: “He did [impress] but you can’t put too much pressure on him. He’s got a helluva way to go to get through a lot of them and to get in the side.

“But what he has shown me is that I can trust him, same as Idris [El Mizouni] I can trust him to play first-team games. But it’s a big ask to put him right in when lads are playing really well themselves.”

The Town manager was pleased to see Jordan Roberts score twice in that game: “It was great, I’m delighted for Jordan because he’s had a hard time, he maybe beats himself up too much when he doesn’t score.

“I’m delighted that he got the two goals. Even the other night, we played some really good stuff with lads that have just come back from injury, lads that haven’t played, young kids. I was happy with the way the team played.”

Meanwhile, he says trialist George Heaven, who has featured for the U23s in their last two fixtures, won’t be offered a contract.

“George went back. I only saw him a couple of times,” he said. “Gerard Nash and Chris Hogg were leading him, so they made the decision.

“I saw the kids play and the lad’s away back to try and get a career somewhere, but he did well when he came in, but was he going to be good enough going forward? I don’t know."

Photo: TWTD

hoppy added 16:17 - Sep 12 Heaven knows - he's miserable now!
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brainbox added 16:23 - Sep 12 Will be good to have Luke Garbutt back. We could really do with his strength to bolster our left side activities in the way Kane has improved our attacking down the right since his arrival.
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timkatieadamitfc added 16:43 - Sep 12 Absolutely @brainbox, he was brilliant against Sunderland and we didn't look half as good when he went off even though we replaced him with Judge. IMO if he hadn't have been forced off we would have won that game - COMFORTABLY
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Linkboy13 added 17:00 - Sep 12 Feel sorry for the boy Heaven he didn't have a prayer.
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uefa1981 added 17:14 - Sep 12 Nice one Luke. Heaven couldn't help us .....
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Essexnblue added 17:15 - Sep 12 I am glad he is back, in both the first 2 games we had, he was comfortably the best player we had.
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BigHibbs added 18:28 - Sep 12 Not ignoring the fact that he was brilliant in the left mid role. But I for one want to see him play left back. With the 11 as it is. I think him and young are perfect at full back
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Knightsy added 19:39 - Sep 12 Good to hear that Garbutt is on his way back, heaven knows how much we've missed him. 😉
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cobbolds added 21:02 - Sep 12 Heaven no.17 shirt? Danny got in first.
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