Town boss Kieran McKenna has no new injury issues ahead of Wednesday’s game at home to Stoke City but has a decision to make regarding who will start at number nine with George Hirst having picked up his fifth booking of the season on Saturday.

McKenna says Wes Burns is the only player who trained last week not involved in the last few days having suffered a gash to his leg when playing for the U21s.

“No real change to that,” McKenna said when asked about the health of the squad. “Wes had a little setback for a few days, so he’s not trained with us this week. Everyone else has been with us.”

McKenna was asked whether it was frustrating that Hirst picked up one of his five yellow cards in the abandoned game at Blackburn.

“I hadn’t really thought about one of them being at Blackburn,” he smiled. “I thought the one on Saturday was a little bit soft on Saturday, to be honest.

“But it is what it is. It’s why we have a squad and why we have everyone now up to speed, so whoever is picked will be ready to come in and do a good job.”

Among the options to start as the number nine are Ivan Azon, who scored his second goal for the club and first at Portman Road in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat of Coventry City.

“Nice for him to get his first goal at Portman Road,” McKenna continued. “I don’t think you can underestimate that for Ivan and Sindre [Walle Egeli] at the weekend to get their first goals at their home stadium, that’s always a big one.

“He’ll feel better after that, for sure. But we have some good options there still in different types of forwards that we could use and that we plan to use over the course of the games coming up. We’ll pick the best option for tomorrow night.”

Another alternative is Chuba Akpom, who has scored once in six starts and nine sub appearances since signing on loan from Ajax in August.

McKenna was asked whether he is still weighing up the 30-year-old’s best role having been utilised mainly as a number 10 but with cameos as the centre forward.

“I think there’s a little bit of that when you have players who are versatile,” he reflected. “He’s maybe had six starts or something like that, which isn’t too bad for someone who wasn’t really fit properly and ready to go pretty much until the end of August.

“It can take time to settle, even if you are a player who has had experience and had success previously, coming from a couple of years playing in different competitions as well in different countries and resettling back in.

“Playing in a different team, different teammates, maybe not a wildly different role to the one he played in his last year at Middlesbrough, but still with some differences.

“We’re still, of course, trying to find ways to get the best out of him, to get him in the best positions and there is a responsibility on every player as well on that side to keep trying to bring their best, we try and come together on that.

“He’s played nearly all his football so far as a number 10. Played some key minutes for us as a number nine for us at Hull and then again at Oxford and I think there’s a fair chance we’ll see some more of that as well in the games we have coming up.

“But we know he’s a really good finisher, he can be really dangerous around the opposition’s penalty box and we’re really working hard to get the best out of him and work with him on that to see the best of him.

“It’s still pretty early days, I know we’re well into the midst of the season, but to have a big, big impact here individually and to really help the team, there’s still a great opportunity to do that this season. We’re still working towards that and, hopefully, he’ll have some big moments and a big part to play with the games we have coming up.”

Photo: TWTD