Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed centre-half George Edmundson and on-loan Arsenal forward Tyreece John-Jules will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

Edmundson, 25, will require an operation having aggravated an old injury in training a fortnight ago.

John-Jules, 22, only recently returned to the Blues having been back with the Gunners for most of his recovery from the hamstring surgery he underwent in October.

“George is awaiting surgery on his ankle. He got the injury a couple of weeks ago in training,” McKenna said.

“It’s on the ankle he had a previous injury on, so there’s a weakness there and very unfortunately for him and for us, he’s going to require surgery, which will finish his season. That’s a big disappointment for him and for us.

“He had a little roll of his ankle after the Burnley game, so he missed a week after that, but he came back and was feeling good and was training well and he rolled his ankle on an old injury, so he’s going to have surgery in the early part of next week to rectify that, hopefully for good.

“Tyreece John-Jules has had an injury in his rehabilitation to his quadricep that he had an injury on last year.

“He’s awaiting a specialist opinion but his season will be finished, so he won’t be available and hopefully he can get that rectified and remedied to come back strong because, as we’ve said, he’s such a fantastic player and talent and person. We all are very disappointed for him and wish him to come back strong.

“Those two alongside Lee Evans are the long-term injuries that we’re dealing with at the moment.

“We’ve a couple of other niggles and issues and illnesses in the camp but hopefully most of those will come through for the game on Saturday.”

John-Jules impressed McKenna before suffering his initial injury and the Blues boss isn’t ruling out his return at a later date with his spell up in the summer.

“We certainly wouldn’t rule it out,” he said. “Of course, those conversations are for the summer, but he’s a player that we really like and really enjoyed working with.

“We think he would have had a massive part of our campaign because we built him into the season slowly and he was getting better and better, but it hasn’t worked out.

“He needs to get his body right now and he’s working really hard to do that. Hopefully he can use this spell now between now and pre-season to really look at things in all aspects, and I know he’s doing that, to find ways that he can stay fit throughout the course of the season.

“If he can do that, then he’s a fantastic player and he’s certainly someone that the type of profile that we want to have at the football club, so we’ll see what the summer brings.”

John-Jules made 10 starts and 11 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring three times.

Better news was Dominic Ball’s return to the bench at Bolton last week having been out of action since undergoing knee surgery in November.

“He’s looking really good, training really well,” McKenna said. “He’s ready to go. Last week was a bit soon, but we felt with the type of game that it was against Bolton and with Massimo starting his third game in a week, that we might need Dom’s physicality and experience to get us through that one.

“But he’s trained well now for a full week again and he’s getting stronger and stronger and he’s ready to contribute when needed.”

Panutche Camara is also making good progress following the hip injury which has troubled the Guinea-Bissau international since the tail end of last season with Plymouth and on which he has had three operations.

“Panutche’s getting on OK,” McKenna said. “He’s building himself up, he’s training well. He’s training and playing pain free, and we can see the difference in him for that from what we saw earlier in the season.

“It’s about continuing that process now. He’s played one game in the U21s. We have to look at the minutes and whether we build him up with maybe one or two more games there or we can arrange one or two games for ourselves for the squad.

“So we’re looking at these things to make sure that not just Panutche but everyone in the squad who hasn’t played so many minutes, they are as fit and ready as they can be because, as we’ve seen with the couple of boys picking up big injuries before the end of the season, we need the squad.

“And there’s going to be eight games in April, it’s going to be a really busy month and we’re going to need everyone ready to contribute.”

How far off first-team football is the 26-year-old? “There’s big competition. I think physically, he has no injury now, so he’s available for selection. We have other players in those positions who have been fit and playing and competing for the last 10 months and he’s had one competitive start in the EFL Trophy since last April.

“He’s behind the others in terms of match readiness and the whole process of competing to get into our team and understand how we play.

“That’s the process that’s going on, but from a physical point of view he’s ready and available for selection.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Suffolkboy added 15:00 - Mar 17 Feel sure we'll continue to do the right things the right way : everything is well thought through with our present ITFC ! COYB
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ArnieM added 15:11 - Mar 17 Are we intending to try and sign JJ in the summer? Because I could never understand why Town didn't just release him back to his parent club, given the severity of his hamstring injury. These injuries have a high re injury rate, and additional complications during rehab are common. And so this has been shown to be the case with JJ. We could have returned him to Arsenal and perhaps got in another player? It just makes me ask why we've kept him on our books and yet he's hardly played for us due to this injury, unless, we are looking to sign him in the summer?

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Bazza8564 added 15:14 - Mar 17 Injuries are part and parcel, and with a strong squad with excellent depth we will cope. Need to keep burgess and Wolfy fit though….
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Guthrum added 15:40 - Mar 17 ArnieM - TJJ was young enough not to count towards the limit on outfield players, so we lost nothing by keeping him in the squad. Had her made a smooth come-back, would have been available for the run in to the end of the seaso, but not if the loan had been terminated.
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ArnieM added 16:41 - Mar 17 Ah, thank you for that …. Should have known tbh but for some reason it didn't occur to me.
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Marcus added 16:51 - Mar 17 A couple of factors, sounds like TJJ is a good player to have around the club even if not playing - even if only light training this season it can help, secondly if he's one we have a future interest in then it also helps to remind him how welcome he is. As KMcK said, it's a conversation for summer.
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Len_Brennan added 18:42 - Mar 17 As decent a player as John-Jules is, & as much of a different option up front he gave us, I think Edmondson is the real loss here. With the 2 centre forwards both playing well now & with Broadhead & Edwards for the left, Burns & Jackson on the right, and Chaplin & Aluko for the middle, we are very strong in attack anway. Camara & Humphries are options there too if needed. Burgess has been playing well & had looked to have taken possession of the left-sided centre half spot anyway, but there are games/opponents where he struggles more (being turned too easily) and in those Edmondson is a starting option. Burgess's strength & ariel power is where he dominates. Hopefully he can stay fit now, because Donacien & Keogh are very much more right sided defenders.

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