Blues manager Kieran McKenna says new striker Gassan Ahadme has made a good impression on his teammates since joining the club, but fellow deadline day signing Panutche Camara is a little way off making his Town debut due to the groin injury he picked up in pre-season with Plymouth.

Ahadme, 21, who joined the Blues from Burton Albion as the transfer window closed, made his Town bow as a sub in the 2-0 win at Accrington and McKenna says the Moroccan U23 international has made a good start to his time at Portman Road.

“Gassan is progressing well,” McKenna said. “I think there is a bit of an adjustment when you come here to how we train and the intensity of training and he’s in that process.

“But he’s certainly showing his strengths, showing what he can bring to us, showing his attributes and has made a good impression on the rest of the players first and foremost with his professionalism and hunger and attitude around the building, which is absolutely top class.

“But also on the pitch he’s been showing what he can bring and he’s available to play. We have strong options there, Gassan brings different attributes that are going to be needed and suitable at certain times and he’s ready to bring them.”

Camara, 25, is yet to play a game this season having picked up the groin niggle in pre-season.

“Panutche is a different case, he’s still going to be a little bit of time away. He did some training with the group,” McKenna added.

“The issue that we knew he had when he arrived was a small issue in his groin that we wanted to assess over a few days’ training and I think the medical team have looked at it and alongside Panutche don’t feel like he’s quite in a position to be able to set himself up to come into games and set himself up for a strong season.

“He’s a player who’s had very few injuries in his career and great availability and is going to be a really important player for us.

“We’re going to take our time with him, take a couple of weeks to build him up slowly because he’s missed a lot time and he still has a little bit of an issue on his groin, so we want to make sure we do everything right by that and get him to 100 per cent before we bring him into action because it’s a long season and were going to need him.

“He’s going to be working away from the team for a couple of weeks just to build that base and he’ll come back into fixtures a little bit later.”

Photos: PagePix

Linkboy13 added 15:52 - Sep 12 I was under the impression that players before signing for a club had to pass a medical and fitness test. Let's hope it's not too serious.
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blues1 added 16:24 - Sep 12 Linkboy13. Medicals are to detect if there's any major issues likely preventing them from playing long term, and indeed from being insured in case their career comes to an abrupt end. Minor muscle strains don't prevent deals being done tho. So I'm sure this just a minor issue.
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Monkey_Blue added 16:58 - Sep 12 Medical as Blues1 says are to discover long term or underlying issues that could be serious. It would pick up stuff like his legs potentially falling off at some point. Yes a minor groin issue would be seen but it would only affect a deal if we weren't prepared to wait or it showed he was a bad bet fitness wise
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Linkboy13 added 19:13 - Sep 12 Players way back had fitness tests on the practice pitch. I can remember working on the roof of the old Eastern Electricity building when David Johnson signed from Bury he was being put through his paces doing doggies. We shouted get those knees up and surprised us by waving back and laughing.
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