Town boss Paul Lambert says loan winger Luke Thomas and one or two players who suffered minor knocks at Hull on Tuesday will be assessed this morning ahead of tomorrow’s home match against Doncaster Rovers, while he is pleased with the progress being made by Tristan Nydam, who played his first match in 19 months on Tuesday, and Cole Skuse, who is back in training.

Thomas, who is with the Blues for the rest of the season from Barnsley, suffered a knock in the home game against Northampton and has missed out on a place in the squad for the last two matches.

“We’ll see how he is this morning, see how he’s feeling, see how he’s doing. We’ll just check on him this morning,” he said.

Lambert says there are one or two bumps and bruises following the 1-0 win at the KCOM Stadium on Tuesday.

“One or two little knocks from the other night,” he said. “Again, we’ll just see how everybody is this morning and see how they’re feeling.”

Even without those niggles might he have been looking to freshen it up a little following the long midweek trip and with games coming thick and fast.

“I don’t know. I’ll look at that and see how everybody is this morning,” he reflected. “We had a long journey home, so we’ll just see how everybody is.”

Town have Flynn Downes adding to Lambert's options having served his two-match ban for his red card against Northampton.

Given the frequency of games, the Blues continue to have two matches a week for the next month, he says managers have an eye on games ahead when looking at picking their team.

“You always try and look at that, but you never look too far ahead as the most important game is the next one,” he said. “That’s the way I’ll approach the Doncaster one, and then worry about Tuesday night [away at Accrington] after this one.”

Does that have to be communicated to the players, that they might be left out of the upcoming game, but they’ll be involved in the next one? “You try and give them dialogue most times. You can’t do everybody, there are too many players.

“Everybody understands it and to be fair they’ve been good that way with it. They understand it at the minute, the team’s played well.”

Nydam made his long-awaited return at left-back for the U23s as the drew 1-1 at home to QPR on Tuesday, the 21-year-old having suffered a broken ankle and ligament damage in the pre-season friendly away at Notts County in July 2019.

The former England U19 international played the first 52 minutes and came through the game without an issue.

“After that horrific injury just playing football, it doesn’t matter what level he’s playing at, just getting back on the grass, training, I think that was important to Tristan,” Lambert said.

“As I said before, there’s never any pressure to rush back or anything like that, it was a really nasty break.”

The Blues boss is unsure whether Nydam will be able to be involved with the first team before the end of the season.

“I don’t know, depends where Tristan’s at, depends where the team’s at, all those sorts of things,” he said. “There’s no pressure from me on that kid because he’s come back from a long time out and a really bad break.”

Skuse was back out on the Playford Road training ground this week having undergone knee surgery in October.

Lambert welcomed the 34-year-old’s return: “It’s been a long time, six months now. It’s good to see him back out training again on the grass.

“OK, he’s still a little bit short of where he probably wants to get to where he is, but at least he’s out there and playing on the grass. He trained a little bit with us yesterday, it’s just a matter of building him up I guess.

“His experience will be invaluable in helping that as well. How far away he is, he’ll still need a little bit of time to come back fully fit.”

Asked how difficult it is to manage training sessions with so many players in the squad now that more and more players are fit, he said: “When we’ve Saturday-Tuesday games and we get guys hurt on a Saturday, guys have to be ready to come in on a Tuesday.

“Everybody has to be really engaged with it and really focused on it. I think that’s really important to them as an individual.

“We could have injuries today or tomorrow and they have to be ready to step in and do the same as the guys that are in the team have done.

“I think everybody understands it, that with games Saturday-Tuesday that it could happen at any moment, that you get thrown.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Edmundo added 10:40 - Feb 26 Please keep your best team out there, barring injury, PL. We are on a good bit of form: you don't change a winning side.
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TractorFrog added 10:45 - Feb 26 Skuse could be a really important player for us this year. For now, we need to leave the team unchanged, because we're on good form, but if we start losing matches, Skuse would be a reliable set of feet to help the team get back on form.
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ChrisFelix added 10:51 - Feb 26 Could always bring in Skuse to improve the pace & score more goals !!!!
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TractorFrog added 10:56 - Feb 26 ChrisFelix, just because Skuse doesn't score goals doesn't mean he's not a good player. He is a pivotal part of the team, and can control the midfield effectively. Players like Dozzell and Bishop are the ones who provide an attacking threat, and they can do their roles better with Skuse in the team, because they don't have to worry about defending so much. Flynn Downes can also play Skuse's role well, but is more likely to commit fouls and get yellow cards than Skuse.

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Suffolkboy added 10:59 - Feb 26 It would be very good to see CS fully fit again ; too easily underrated ,and by many , he is a wise stabilising influence and technically well equipped . COYB
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Radlett_blue added 11:09 - Feb 26 "there are too many players". Yes, Paul, and as someone who has been manager for over 2 years, who is responsible for that?
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braveblue added 12:11 - Feb 26 Tractor frog. Skuse!! Look at our decline over the past few years with him a constant in central midfield. He adds nothing.
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TractorFrog added 12:22 - Feb 26 Braveblue, we have been much worse this year without Skuse than all the previous years with him. During the Mick McCarthy era I would argue he was the most important member of the team, with the exception of Bartosz Bialkowski. Murphy of course had one great year when he was the most important player, but Skuse was always there. He often goes unnoticed, but he can control the midfield and allows more creative midfielders like Bishop more creativity. Of course, he's past his best now, and Downes is now the better player, but if we were on a bad run, Skuse is still the most reliable midfielder we have, and would be a good calming influence, helping the team get back on good form. He is no longer a certain starter every week, but he is still an important part of the team. In my eyes, Ipswich would be mad not to give him a coaching rule when he retires, probably at the end of the year.

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