McKenna: No New Issues Apart from Morsy's Ban Tuesday, 24th Dec 2024 14:58 Town boss Kieran McKenna reported no new injuries at his press conference ahead of Friday’s visit to Arsenal but will be without skipper Sam Morsy due to suspension, however, with striker Liam Delap back from his ban (KO 8.15pm, Amazon Prime). The Blues manager says his squad came through Saturday’s home defeat to Newcastle without picking up any further knocks. George Hirst (knee), Axel Tuanzebe (hamstring) and Chiedozie Ogbene (achilles) remain sidelined with the striker and right-back hopefully returning next month with the winger a longer-term absentee. Morsy misses out at the Emirates having taken his tally of bookings to five for the season against the Magpies. “I think we've come through after Saturday, so apart from Samy’s suspension, I think the availability will be the same,” McKenna said. Kalvin Phillips appears the most likely replacement for the Egypt international with Jack Taylor an alternative, while Massimo Luongo has been unwell recently and seems unlikely to come into McKenna’s thinking. “We've got a couple of options which we need, to be honest. Massimo has been ill over the last week or two, so we have to assess how he is as well,” he said. “It was good to get Kalvin on the pitch in the second half of the Newcastle game. That was important. He's still kind of working his way back. Jack had a good game against Bournemouth. “Neither are necessarily like-for-like replacements for Sam, but whoever comes into the team will hopefully bring their own strengths to it.” Phillips, on loan with the Blues from Manchester City for the season, was back in action after almost two months out having rolled his ankle after his most recent start, the Leicester game at the beginning of November in which he was red-carded for two bookable offences. “I think he had a better week last week with his ankle,” McKenna said when asked whether the England international is getting towards being 100 per cent fit.“He said he didn't feel anything from the game and he trained well today. “I guess 100 per cent is probably when you have a few more games under your belt, but from the ankle issue that he had I think he's feeling much better.” McKenna is delighted to have Delap, who missed the Newcastle game having also reached five yellow cards, available again. “He was a loss, there’s no doubt about it,” he admitted. “He was always going to be and so it panned out last week. So, important to have him back. “We're going to need his strengths in the game, as well as the other boys, that's for sure. So, nice to have him back.” Despite the game having been moved to the 27th rather than the traditional Boxing Day fixture, McKenna says his team will still train on Christmas Day. “We're going to be in,” he said. “We gave the players a bit of a longer weekend off and then we're going to have a proper flow through to the Arsenal game. “These games, 27th December, Friday night at the Emirates, they don't come around 100 times in your career for the group, so we want to give the absolute best account of ourselves and make the most of it. “The group’s trained well today and we'll be in over the next few days preparing as well as we can and making sure that we go into Friday night in the best way possible.”
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