Assistant manager Stuart Taylor has confirmed there are clubs showing interest in right-back Janoi Donacien but says there have been no enquiries regarding other players that the club has been willing to listen to, while he isn't anticipating any further new additions despite striker Oli Hawkins having to undergo surgery and James Norwood and Kayden Jackson also having felt injuries this week.

The Blues are limited to a 22-man senior squad under the salary cap rules which means they will have to offload players or have them remain at the club while unavailable.

Harry Wright and Barry Cotter seem set to go out for further loan spells as they're not expected to be included in the senior squad, while Janoi Donacien has long appeared surplus to requirements having rarely been involved since Paul Lambert took charge in October 2018, only a matter of months after the St Lucia-born defender joined the club for £750,000 under Paul Hurst’s management.

In total, Donacien has made 30 starts and two sub appearances in his two and a half years with the Blues without scoring.

Last week, Plymouth had a £50,000 offer rebuffed by Town with Fleetwood and Wigan subsequently linked with loan moves, while Accrington have also been keen to re-sign the 27-year-old, who has been unable to break into Town’s League One XI this season with his only three games having come in cup competitions.

“It is a necessity [to move one or two on] because of the requirements of the salary cap and the squad, you can only go with 22 players, so someone does have to move out,” Taylor said.

Regarding Donacien, who is out of contract at the end of the season but with the Blues having an option for a further year, he added: “There are a couple of clubs interested, but obviously we’ll be professional on that and not mention any clubs because it’s unfair.

“But yes, Janoi’s in a situation, he’s aware of that and he and the club will make a decision on what he wants to do.”

Asked whether it was best for the former Aston Villa youngster to move on at this point, Taylor said: “He needs to play games, he needs to go out and kick-start his career.

“But he’s been fantastic in his time here, he’s been really professional, but we knew that anyway, we had him previously at Villa, we know the type of character he is, the personality he is and we’ll see what happens over the next couple of days.

“And if he were to move on, then we wish him well. If he stays, then we’re happy, he’s a good player.”

Asked whether Donacien's expected exit leaves the Blues short of cover at full-back, he added: "It’s a decision that we’re having to make. Obviously, the rules come into that.

“On the other side of it, we’ve got Kane Vincent-Young coming back. Hopefully, he’s not going to be too far away, and hopefully, he goes from strength to strength.

“And we’ve also got Chambo who is very robust, and he’s shown that over his career, but we do need cover there and it’s a situation that we find ourselves in because of the rules.”

Quizzed on whether there has been any interest in any of the Blues’ other players, he added: “Not anything that we’ll want to listen to.”

In terms of incoming signings, Taylor says the loan signings of Luke Thomas and Josh Harrop earlier this week are likely to be the full extent of Town's January business: “At this moment in time, it does look like it but you just never know what’s round the corner.”

He says bringing a striker in has been talked about but the limitations of the salary cap make that tricky.

“It’s something that we’ve spoken about but obviously there are the restrictions that we’ve got with the salary cap and different things, , the squad places,” he said.

“It is something we’ve spoken about, whether something actually happens we need to see in the next couple of days.”

Photo: Matchday Images

dirtydingusmagee added 10:43 - Jan 22 nothing against Donacien, but let him go, in fact let them all go they no longer play for the shirt or even for pride, just over blown wages, [and half the team would rather not even play for that ,] useless owner ,clueless manager,spineless players, welcome to ITFC.
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Cloddyseedbed added 17:04 - Jan 22 Sends out a message that if no clubs are interested in any of our players, it's either:- 1) Football clubs are all skint and have serious financial worries which is understandable, or 2) None of our players are as good as they think they are. 3) Mixture of both.
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