Central defender John McGreal will make his first appearance of the season against Derby on Saturday, in place of the suspended Georges Santos. McGreal, who has been injured for most of the last year, will partner Richard Naylor at the centre of the Town defence.

The Blues are waiting on full-back Fabian Wilnis but could name an unchanged side. Wilnis has a tired hamstring and the Dutchman will require a fitness test on Saturday lunchtime before a decision is made on whether to play him.

Should the former De Graafschap man not make it, manager Joe Royle says that Jermaine Wright will move to right-back with Tommy Miller taking over Wright's midfield berth.

Richard Naylor was a slight concern after the Nottingham Forest game due to fluid on his knee and has missed training as a precaution. However, he is a certain starter against the Rams.

Young defender Scott Mitchell will not be involved despite being included in Royle's provisional squad.

Striker Pablo Couñago is back fit again after his hamstring problem and will start on the bench, as will Alan Mahon, who may well be included in the reserves against Spurs at Stevenage on Monday, along with Martijn Reuser.

Drissa Diallo is continuing to recover from his knee operation with a Christmas return pencilled in.

The Blues' other long-term absentee, Chris Makin, saw a specialist yesterday regarding his mystery groin/hip problem and the results of a number of deep scans are expected either today or early next week.

Georges Santos, who misses the visit of Derby due to a one-match suspension after reaching five bookings, has a few minor knocks but is not thought a concern ahead of the trip to Millwall next week.

Royle says that he is not concerned at John McGreal's fitness despite his lengthy spell in the sidelines: “He's been out a long time but he's trained consistently now and hasn't missed a day's training in the best part of a month.

“He's also played reserve games and done very well in them. He's a confident type John and I've got no qualms about putting him in. He's looked very good in training, although it's a big step up from reserve football to the frantic pace of the Nationwide League.

“Ironically he played against [Derby loanee] Lee Bradbury for the reserves against Portsmouth recently and against Marcus Tudgay for Derby's reserves, so he'll know all about them.”

The game marks George Burley's first return to Portman Road as a manager of another club and Royle says he expects the former Town boss to get a good welcome: “I'm sure George will get great reception. He was very popular here and rightly so, he did a fantastic job for the club. George and I are great mates and always have been.”

Derby's biggest success story in a difficult period for them has been the emergence of a number of highly-rated youngsters, players rated by the Town boss: “Huddlestone and Holmes look very promising in particular.

“They've done well after a dodgy start. After hitting the bottom they've started to pick up one or two results.

“At their place we got back to 2-2 and the game was very open, we could have won the game or equally lost it. You look at the form and people will think it's a home banker but it's never that easy.

“I think that we're playing well, I took great heart out of the other night, when we got a point when out form dipped a little bit from the Cardiff performance, and that's a good sign.

“If you look at the last three games — Sheffield United, Cardiff and Forest — I think we would have happily taken seven points from those games beforehand.”

Derby have a number of injury worries ahead of Saturday. Striker Lee Morris (calf), midfielder Tom Huddlestone (ankle) and defender Michael Johnson (hamstring) are all concerns but George Burley is hopeful at least one of them may be OK to line-up against the Blues.

On the sidelines long-term are Brazilian striker Junior, who has a cruciate knee ligament injury, and keeper Andy Oakes.

On-loan full-back Peter Kennedy - a scorer against Town at Pride Park — has returned to Wigan, with Luciano Zavagno taking over at left-back.

Burley has called Peruvian youngster Gianfranco Labarthe Tome and 16-year-old Nathan Doyle into his travelling party.

Saturday's referee is Matt Messias from York who is on the Premiership list. He previously officiated Town in the 2-1 home win against Tottenham in January 2001. This season he has booked 38 players in 10 games and has shown just one red card.

Town squad: Bart-Williams, Bent, Bowditch, Couñago, Davis, Kuqi, Magilton, Mahon, McGreal, Miller, Naylor, Price, Reuser, Richards, Westlake, Wilnis and Wright.

Photo: Action Images

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