Town boss Kieran McKenna says midfield duo Jens Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips haven’t yet been ruled out of Wednesday’s trip to take on his old club Manchester United.

The Swedish international turned his ankle during Saturday’s 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham, while Phillips suffered a calf problem.
 
“Jens and Kalvin going off was a blow,” McKenna said. “They're still being assessed, to be honest. We don't know the severity, it looks like hopefully neither is a very, very serious injury, but they're still sort of getting some scans and assessments today before we know further. And other than that, I think we're similar to how we are.

“Of course, it will be nice to have Axel Tuanzebe back in the squad [following his one-match ban]. Conor Chaplin’s got a full session in with the group today, which was good.

“Julio [Enciso]’s working with a physiotherapist still on his knee and otherwise, we're pretty much the same.”

Pressed on whether Cajuste and Phillips could be involved at Old Trafford, McKenna continued: “Honestly, I don’t think we can rule anything in or out, and that’s not being flippant with it. They’re getting some scans this morning, we’re waiting on results this afternoon.

“We think neither injury is very severe, but we can’t put any timescale, beyond that, to be honest.”

McKenna was delighted with the way the pair performed against Spurs: “I thought they both played really well on Saturday, I have to say, and in the game before that they played well as well. 
 
“I think they're both on their own journeys. Jens has played more consistently over the last few months, probably, but I think he, on an individual level, can be really happy with his progress.

“He arrived late in the summer carrying a little bit of a [knee] issue that had to be managed and I think there are lots and lots of games in which he's been one of the most dominant midfielders on the pitch.

“So I think he can be really happy with his performances, but still, lots to come. He's still young, you know, 25 for Jens, who moved to the big leagues a little bit later in his career. He's still young, so I still think there's improvement to come. 
 
“And Kalvin has some ups and downs across the season. But we feel like, certainly at the training ground, there's been improvement and he's getting to a good place.
 
“He’s started to show that on the pitch now pretty consistently as well. And I thought he played well on Saturday before he had to come off.

“So, with Sam [Morsy], Jack Taylor and Massimo [Luongo] there, it's a pretty strong unit. And we trust all of them.”

Skipper Morsy has been a mainstay of McKenna’s time in charge of the club but has been left on the bench on a couple of occasions recently as Phillips and Cajuste started. The Blues boss says the Egyptian international has reacted to his omission positively.

“He’s been fantastic, exactly we would expect, to be honest,” he said. “He’s led probably even more behind the scenes in the games that he hasn’t started, he’s been fantastic in training, has been excellent around the group and excellent in the dressing room and on the sidelines.

“I think he knows, like every player, that it’s a long season, there’s going to be different stages of the season where you might play more minutes and periods of the season when you might play a little bit less, but everyone has an important role to play in helping the squad pick up results.

“Samy knows that better than anyone and has embodied that better than anyone at the training ground.”

Regarding Chaplin, who has been out of action since the turn of the year with a knee problem, he added: “He trained with the group today, was involved with the group at the back end of last week, but coming back off of a good amount of time out now. He’s trained a bit more fully today, so he’s not too far away from involvement.”

Reflecting on the Saturday-Wednesday gap between matches, McKenna says the four days between the games means there’s less of an impact on players’ load.

“I think that’s fair to say,” he said. “The extra recovery day is important, so it means that today the players are still recovering, and it was a physical game [against Spurs].

“But we’ve got tomorrow to train properly and on Wednesday morning to prepare as well.

“I think we’ll go into the game with a good amount of freshness, I don’t think freshness will be an issue, so we’ll look to go there with lots of energy.”

Photo: Matchday Images

ruds added 15:18 - Feb 24 I'll take some mind games to give us any chance of bringing a point or three back to Suffolk on Wednesday. Not quite Last Chance Saloon, but won't be long before we're checking prices at the Championship Saloon, I feel. COYB
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Leejames99 added 15:32 - Feb 24 Here we go, I watched that press conference on Sky, Mckenna was nervous and fidgety and spoke about Town going to Old Trafford like they were competition winners or a non league side getting a cup tie there, and how the players have never played there mostly and are excited, and he has made it pretty obvious Cajuste and Phillips are out and we have a strong unit in midfield with the oldest 2 midfielders in Prem and one from league 1 not good at all, we are doomed luongo up against Fernades, Cassimero, Ugarte, Dalot, Zirkzee. He may aswell play the whole league one team and give them a nice experience for the last 2 seasons Mckenna line up for tomorrow Walton Tunazabe Woolfeden Burgess Davis Morsy c Luongo Taylor Broadhead Chaplin Hirst Ridiculous Starting to wonder now if this league was a league to far for Mckenna and with 11 matches left after tomorrow if we could do with a new manager bounce ourselves, go get Gerrard or get Redknapp in to help because that press conference was a joke, without a doubt!

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awayfan added 15:41 - Feb 24 In the Harry Potter books, Dementors were creatures that fed on human happiness and thus generated feelings of depression and despair in any person in close proximity to them. ruds & Leejames99, you should have auditioned for roles in the films.
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TimmyH added 15:42 - Feb 24 Well that's good news that neither injury seems to be that bad and more of a niggle...currently I'd rather have both of them starting rather than alternatives but looking at their stats both need to improve - no goals and no assists, not good enough. It's not just about a poor defence... I feel an incoming down mark from blues1 (again).
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kwakaboy added 15:43 - Feb 24 James 99 obviously not your iq ! Most stupid comment for weeks well done, why don’t you stay at Carrot Road !
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Leejames99 added 15:52 - Feb 24 @kwakaboy What an earth was that lol, are you old enough to be on here? Looks like a 5 year old wrote that. It was a fair comment, Mckenna was totally depressed, fidgety and spoke like the team had won a raffle to play at Old Trafford. Those League 1 players are not good enough for the Prem
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Leejames99 added 15:57 - Feb 24 @awayfan If your an away fan stay at Norwich, bit pathetic replying to an opinion with a Harry Potter reference but if you like that as a reference here you go ...Mckennas team selections are so up in the air each game we may aswell be playing Quidditch! There isn't a spell in Howard's that will keep us up with league one players!
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Skip73 added 16:03 - Feb 24 LeeJames: Gerrard or Redknapp! You're joking right?
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Linkboy13 added 16:08 - Feb 24 Contrary to beliefs managers are not super human beings with magic wands who can turn championship players into Premier players and if you believe that you probably haven't had any involvement in football. Changing the manager wouldn't make a blind bit of difference and would more than likely do more damage. McKenna is only doing what any other manager would do by staying positive he's hardly going to slag off his players in public. I said at the start of the season if things went wrong the fickle fans would be on McKenna's back but perhaps i should allow for the fact they haven't got a brain cell in their head.

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Leejames99 added 16:12 - Feb 24 We are so lucky that 8 of our league 1 legends play tomorrow 2 seasons after their narrow 1-0 win away at MK Don's on the same date, if Burns was fit and H Clarke and humphreys not on loan we could have 10 but if we play Luongo not Taylor we will as Luongo was on bench tgat day. So yes we have really improved, all the new signings are rubbish according to alot of fans so let's play the team fans adore and see how they go! Walton Tunazabe Burgess Woolfeden Davis Morsy Luongo Taylor Chaplin Broadhead Hirst COYB

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naa added 16:15 - Feb 24 Leejames99: was that a joke comment? Ignoring the mental suggestion of the failed manager Gerrard, or the retired Rednapp, Walton is injured if nothing else! Shows how keenly you have been following us. you sre not alone in McKenna bashing on here and it's painful. 2 years ago Southampton and Leicester were two divisions above us. Now we are above them, which, if nothing else, shows how hard it is in this division. Any fan thinking we'd be mid-table this season was living in cloud cuckooland. People bash McKenna for going on about fine margins. But he's completely correct. There have been at least 4 games this season where a small mistake/moment of brilliance etc stopped us winning/drawing. With those we'd be above Wolves. We do seem to be slipping now, but that was to be expected, as clubs have a chance to assess our game and counteract it (Luton got 20 points first half of last season and 6 in the second). We've also had loads of injuries and have a thin squad.

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Lord_Mac added 16:16 - Feb 24 Stick with McKenna, even if we get relegated, if he wishes to stay. He will have learned from this season and I'm sure there are many things he'd do differently. But we should be in good shape to go up again in the next couple of years and given the opportunity he can put those things right second time around. We got promoted too quickly to adjust to the demands of the Premiership. I feel we might have done as well to stick with the core team that got us up, who at least had the mmentum; or to have built an entirely new team. But in the event, we ended up somewhere between the two.

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naa added 16:18 - Feb 24 Leejames99: I'm not actually suire what point you ar emaking now. You keep going on about our League 1 players. Are you saying we should play them or that they are rubbish? You now appear to be slagging off the fans calling for us to play the old squad and who are slagging off the new players. That's not entirely unreasonable. But you also appear to be slagging off McKenna. And that IS unreasonable.

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Leejames99 added 16:21 - Feb 24 I was joking re Gerrard & Redknapp, but look oh no not Mckenna, he isn't going obviously but when you look at our squad tomorrow will be full of the exact team from 2 seasons ago with a close 1-0 at MK Don's how can you expect and demand we stay uo? Some fans won't have a bad word said about the league 1 players and totally slate all the new signings, 3 goals Davis fault on Sat but who gets blame Godfrey, lose 4-1 v Newcastle whose fault Muric etc it's ridiculous. If you don't like new signings and selections but want us to stay in Prem why don't you downmarkers and ones with abusive posts give an intelligent reply of who you think should play, who you think should go down instead of Town and what teams we are going to get points from and with who?

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naa added 16:28 - Feb 24 Leejames99: OK I think the sarcasm in your posts has been missed. Davis was at fault on Saturday but you can hardly absolve Godfrey of any responsibility either. I think the fans calling for the League 1 players is because they identified that - last year particularly - they gelled very well as a team and were more than the sum of their parts. this year, our football isn't flowing. Partly that is because of the much higher skill level required and partly because trying to create a new team in the Premier league is very hard. Davis is a great player at the main part of his game - attacking. He sure has defensive flaws but in the past that hasn't been as big an issue. McKenna obviously feels that one outweighs the other. I think a blended squad of "improved" new players and the old ones is what we need, and largely that's been happening. He hasn't played many from League 1 recently, despite what you state. e.g. starting 11 on Saturday had Davis in it. No-one else. So, not sure what point you are making there. Ultimately, I think we've mostly done as well as expected. We've shipped more goals than I'd like, but we let loads in last year, so it's not really a great surprise and we were never going to score as many. There have been a lot of close games and plenty we deserved more from. Saturday's result was MASSIVELY flattering to Spurs. It could/should have been level/us in front before the last two goals on chances created etc.

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chepstowblue added 16:31 - Feb 24 Whilst I like both Sam and Massimo, the thought of Casemiro and Ericsson being too quick for them in central midfield is quite alarming. That was certainly an area where I'd have fancied us hurting them with KP and Jens. Saturday felt like the "final nail". But as Wednesday evening approaches, against an opposition who are often awful, sometimes excellent, but generally mediocre, three points is not out of the question to haul us back into the scrap.

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Leejames99 added 16:45 - Feb 24 Just for clarity all, this is a forum for debate and discussion and opinion and dome stuff we will all agree and some stuff we defo won't. So here is my opinion - Mckenna is a great young manager who will stay and owes the club at least a season after backing him in transfer market, new contract, the fact players are here because of him and the clubs plan so without doubt he will be in place next season whatever league we are in, we were and still are favourites to go down and he, Ashton and all of us with a brain knew that is a strong possibility, the Premier League need to look at the gap. My only criticism of Mckenna is tinkering to accomodate favourites from his journey with the club. They are legends and done great and after back to back promotions deserved a chance in the Prem but its quite obvious some are just not good enough. If he is going to spend millions and pay huge wages to leave these players on the bench what was the point of buying them. IMO Morsy, Burns, Davis as LB, Taylor and more aren't Prem standard. chopping the team every week has been costly. I know we have injuries and thats bad luck but noe in my opinion he needs to throw the kitchen sink at the last 11 games in attack because our goal difference so big now. If cajuste and Phillips are out i think a very sold back up would be playing a 4-2-3-1 With Johnson in front of Tunazabe and Davis in front of Townsend with Szmodicks in a ten role that's 6 defensive and 4 attacking. Palmer Tunazabe O'Shea C Greaves Townsend Johnson Davis Szmodicks Phillogene Hutchinson Delap But it's just my opinion if Cajuste and Phillips fit then they start. @linkboy13 i dont usually give you time of the day because you never give solutions or thoughts just waffle and abuse. Its good to debate

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naa added 17:00 - Feb 24 Leejames99: your line-up has no central midfielders in it! Who's going to win the ball/pick up from the defenders/be in the middle of the pitch? Bizarre. But at least there's only 1 League 1 player in there eh?.
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BangaloreBlues added 17:03 - Feb 24 Hilarious the people who come on here and pick the team, because obviously they know better. There's a reason you are picking the team sat on a chair and there's another reason why KMK is picking the team that goes out on the field in the Premier League, after incredible back-to-back promotions. KMK is a Town legend, and always will be, even if things turn sour down the road. I will never say a bad word against him, or any player that puts on a Blue shirt. I am honestly sick to death of people coming on here and slagging off my team. I've said it countless times so I may as well say it again - you are not supporters of this club.

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Leejames99 added 17:08 - Feb 24 @naa Thankyou, someone who recognised sarcasm phew. Point I was making re players from league 1 is some imo aren't prem quality and our bench is super weak in midfield and when Davis is at LB in Prem but I of course rate him going forward but I don't understand if he wants to be a left winger why he doesn't play him in left mid or left wing in front of Townsend. We have lost so many games or conceded late when we have bought subs on and that's where we can't compete, we had Luongo and Al Hamadi coming on and Man City have De Bruyne and Grealiah etc nearly every Prem club has a bench of internationals. That's why we should all know that in all on honesty it was a season too soon and look at who Mckenna has bought in, the best young talent who will be assets and are the best from Championship, had we not gone up and bought Clarke, Greaves, Phillogene, Szmodicks etc we would of been bouncing and if relegated we should be, we just need to rebuild midfield next season but with Humphreys back I think in Championship he plays and probaly Downes comes back which I don't mind being an Ipswich lad and he has the experience, grit and maturity, at RB we have Tunazabe and H Clarke, Woolfeden etc which is good as they too are Ipswich boys, if we stay up I'd think we would sign Premiership ready midfielders. I dont think it is a huge issue going down, we are totally different to Luton and should have more than enough quality to return with a team who have had a couple season together and a winning mentality. Like league 1 to Championship did we need a Championship to Premiership quality team now but came up a season early I believe, do we want to struggle next year in Prem or stick to the plan and keep building, I still hope and think we can stay up if we start attacking but likewise I genuinely think we are prepared for relegation as it was never a given we would stay up this season and aside Muric not working out I think we bought the best we could and were clever in doing so.

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Leejames99 added 17:12 - Feb 24 @bangaloreblues Just an opinion, what was that nonsense, your just happy in league 1 I take it with your safe comfort blanket players, popping on just to say we aren't supporters for having an opinion, what's yours lol I love my team, we all do but this is a forum.
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Leejames99 added 17:17 - Feb 24 @naa, I know re midfield but thought maybe with Davis and Johnson sitting further in in front of back 4 with Szmodicks in 10 and 2 wide might work but I get you, just shows how weak our midfield options are, Godfrey has played right mid too, just hope Cajuste and Phillips fit, Morsy will give his all but not same player in Prem for me
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TimmyH added 17:44 - Feb 24 blimey! Leejames99 - you've half got a lot to say, haven't noticed you on this board until this season.
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Leejames99 added 18:08 - Feb 24 @timmyh No it is first season on this forum, but am a fan, do go to the games etc first match I went to was Town Vs Man Utd we lost 1-0 Bryan Robson penalty. Frank Yallop fave all time player, I work in PR so like a debate about our team.
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armchaircritic59 added 18:23 - Feb 24 Looks like the slagging each other off session is in full swing again, so for my part I'll add my take on things and await the inevitable comebacks! Which actually I don't mind at all, if they are friendly, sensible and offer an alternative opinion. I think the squad we have now has been assembled with at least half an eye and maybe a full one, on the possibility of being back in the Championship next season. We have owners and a CEO, who think ahead about all possible scenarios, and I'm absolutely sure that one has been included. They realise there is absolutely no point in just having " Plan A ". I've said a number of times from day one of the season, we have not been competing on a level playing field with even one single team in the Premier League, no parachute payments, hands tied with FFP, which I absolutely detest and in my view should be scrapped immediately, for reasons I'm not going into right now, or this will become a novel, it might anyway! What we have spent would just about buy you one certain Arsenal player, I'm sure I don't need to say who. We had two choices only with the money we actually have had to spend on players. Do we try and blow it all on 3/4 more established Premier League players and hope that's enough to keep us up, that's even assuming they would want to come here in the first place, or do we look at the bigger picture and try and build something not just for now, but for the future too? I'm as disappointed as many on here at how the season is evolving, but I expected it, and pre season I said 17th would be a triumph, it would be at least a minor miracle now! I believe the club has done the right thing in looking at the wood and not just the trees. There is so much good stuff happening off field as well, the club as a whole is being rebuilt, it's not an overnight fix. It maybe worth noting a comment from our own Ed Sheeran when an interviewer asked him about how he became successful. His reply " I had to fail a lot first ".

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