Town boss Kieran McKenna says there’s no guarantee Conor Townsend will be fit for next week’s trip to Newcastle, the left-back having missed this afternoon’s defeat to Arsenal with a hamstring problem along with Nathan Broadhead, who has a thigh issue.

The Blues are short on left-back options for the trip to the North-East with Leif Davis suspended for the game against the club he supports as well as the next two matches following his red card this afternoon.

“Conor, from the Chelsea game when he came on with a hamstring that he struggling with after the Wolves game, so we’ve lost Conor and Nathan with a thigh issue,” McKenna said.

Regarding the prospects of summer signing Townsend being fit for next week, McKenna added: “It still needs to be scanned, but certainly no guarantees he’ll be available next week.”

If Townsend doesn’t make it, then it seems likely Jacob Greaves will be at left-back at St James’ Park, as was the case after Davis’s dismissal against the Gunners with Cameron Burgess coming on for Jack Clarke, however, McKenna included Somto Boniface on the bench for the first time this afternoon, the 19-year-old having signed from Chelsea in January.

“He’s made a good impact,” McKenna said. “He’s only been here a short amount of time, but he’s made a good impression in the times that he’s trained with us and we think he’s got a good future.”

Liam Delap was again among the subs for the Blues due to the rib injury he suffered against Wolves but the Town manager says the England U21 international is making progress.

“It was always the case [that he’s be on the bench],” McKenna said. “I don’t want to go into it much, I don’t want to put an X on his spot for any opponents, but he’s got a rib injury that he’s doing really, really well to be out there with.

“He’s not able to train pain free at the moment but he still wants to be available and in terms of the actual site of the injury it’s safe to do so, although painful, or else we wouldn’t put him in that scenario.

“Not ready to start but available for some minutes if and when the team needs it, which is good from him.

“It’s getting better week by week, it’s better this week than it was last week, so hopefully with another week’s careful management, it’ll be much, much better by next weekend.”

George Hirst was again one of Town’s better performers in Delap’s absence: “He’s done very well, he’s one who has stepped up really, really well. He can be proud of his efforts. I thought he did his best today as well and occupied the centre-halves well, so it’s good to have him ready to help the team as well.”

Photo: Alfie Cosgrove/News Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Lukeybluey added 17:44 - Apr 20 Thought we looked quite solid when Burgess came on and Greaves switched to leftback, so wouldnt be too disappointed if we started with that backline.
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Lukeybluey added 17:45 - Apr 20 Plus Greaves at LB allows the midfield/attackers to attack more possibly...?
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carlo88 added 17:57 - Apr 20 Are we not able to keep a player fit for more than a fortnight?
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Lukeybluey added 18:08 - Apr 20 I wonder whether we actually train too hard or too much...? Even the warmup today, we were warming up 10minutes before Arsenal cam out, and were still warming up 5/10 minutes more when Arsenal went back to the changing room.
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Leejames99 added 18:52 - Apr 20 Hirst done well? Just waffle, not playing Delap in case he gets injured more like
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blues1 added 19:58 - Apr 20 Leejames99. For gods sake man, just stop with the constant bs. Ur really getting boring now. Gone from one of the most sensible posters in here, to some1,who is just constantly negative and talking rubbish.
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RobsonWark added 20:06 - Apr 20 Conor Townsend is the best left back at the club.
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virginblue added 20:32 - Apr 20 LJ clearly right again. The fact that Hirst didn’t bang in a hat trick against CL semi-finalists just shows that he can’t cut it. Move him on and sign Danny Ings.
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Leejames99 added 21:04 - Apr 20 Correct virginblue Blues1 What's BS and what's negative, in my opinion its shambolic what's your opinion to say it isn't. We are relegated with ease, manager is not a prem manager as doesn't have the passion or backbone to be and league 1 players in late 20's and 30s are not prem standard players, what's your reasoning as to why they? They got promotions so what it's their job

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Linkboy13 added 21:27 - Apr 20 If Muric had played today we would have won three two that's a Leejames99 official stat so must be true. Just saying.
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Leejames99 added 22:05 - Apr 20 @linkboy13 I know it's your school holidays but this forum is for grown ups. Not silly deflection posts about a keeper who hasnt played for half a season so not responsible for the 38 goals leaked since Jan Haven't you got a sticker book to full or something
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Leejames99 added 22:16 - Apr 20 Hirst a hat trick do me a favour, a 26 year old striker he calls himself, scored 31 goals in 169 games that's 6 seasons so around 5 season, prolific, perfect stats for a striker that whoop whoop
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PhuketPete added 05:44 - Apr 21 LJ suggest need a holiday away from social media. You write some half decent stuff occasionally but three quarters is long winded tosh. By the way virginblue was being sarcastic to you (not agreeing with you) about Hirst and Ings. To linkboy13, apologies for down voting your funny message re Muric. Clicked wrong button.
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Bluewhiteboy added 09:44 - Apr 21 Can we stop saying we have league 1 players. The ones we have playing game for us still maybe minus burns. We are all signed from established championship teams on good money. Don't get me wrong many aren't prem standard but likes of Davies, hirst, harry Clarke etc were signed from prem teams with the ambition to be prem players with us. I know the journos like to make out like we're a little team from Suffolk, reality is we owned by a huge pension fund and spent a fortune to get here and stay here. Reality is we are very unlikely to be getting back to our old history but we should be able to become an established prem side

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Carberry added 08:29 - Apr 22 You make a good point Bluewhiteboy. Is Jamie Vardy a non-league player, of course not. However, I'm not sure many of our team have earnt the right to be called Premier League players.
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