New England U21 cap Matt Richards has emerged as another doubt for the Blues ahead of Saturday's home game with Cardiff City. However, Town are hopeful that Richards, Jason De Vos and skipper Jim Magilton will all be available for the visit of the Bluebirds.

Town manager Joe Royle says that Richards aggravated a problem he picked up in pre-season while in action for England: "He's had to come off in training this morning with a sore foot. He had a gash on his foot from the other week and it's just opened up again.

"It was quite deep but it wasn't stitched. He got another blow on it the other night and it's a bit inflamed. I wouldn't say he was a big doubt but he couldn't finish training.

Royle says that Jason De Vos's participation on Saturday is in the balance: "Jason is back in the country and we'll see how he is. He'll talk to the medical people tomorrow.

"He's played three games with the injury up to now. We're told a stress fracture or bone bruising, and it could be either, it's still not totally specific.

"It's meant to heal in four to six weeks and he's been playing on it for three. Canada have been over-cautious and I'm certainly not disappointed that he hasn't played in mid-week.

"We are going to have another precautionary scan. Our medical people say he should be OK even if it is a stress fracture; it's a non-weight bearing bone and you can play with it.

"These injuries are usually found in hindsight. In actual fact, when they took the
x-ray of his leg, they found he'd had a crack in that bone before that he didn't know about."

Skipper Jim Magilton looks likely to have some involvement against the Welshmen: "Jim's trained today and has looked fine, a little bit rusty but he was fine with the injury which was the main thing.

"He's trained with the squad all week but has done a little bit more today - longer passing and such like - and joined in a practice game we had.

"Jim's got a good chance for the weekend. The decision then will be whether we start with him or keep him on the bench. We have to weigh-up that he hasn't had too many full games in pre-season. We've got to look at it bearing in mind that there's a long season to come.

"But he can look after himself on the pitch; he's not the kind of player who goes haring round everywhere, so if we did have to start with him, we could."

Town's line-up against Lennie Lawrence's side looks likely to depend very much on Jason De Vos's fitness. If the Canadian misses out then Drissa Diallo will probably move to centre-half alongside Richard Naylor.

Fabian Wilnis could get the call ahead of Diallo at right-back even if De Vos is fit, but, along with Tony Dinning and Scott Barron, could be a possible replacement for Matt Richards if he doesn't make it. Royle has said on a number of occasions that he was impressed by Dinning playing at full-back against his Manchester City side a few years back.

The Town boss says that youngster Barron, a scorer for the reserves in midweek, is not far away from a first team debut, hinting that it may come in Tuesday's Carling Cup tie at home to Brentford: "Scott Barron isn't far away. He's at the stage now where he will get his chance sooner rather than later.

"I certainly intend to use the game on Tuesday to give one or two players a rest and introduce one or two, but we'll see."

Royle is hopeful his side can put the disappointing display at Derby behind them: "It was a very poor performance. It was an early season reminder, saying to the players 'You've got to do a lot better than this'.

"But then on the positive side, we're three points off the leaders, we're having a much better start than last year and we've got a home match coming up to get over that game."

Royle cites Robert Earnshaw's pace as the Bluebirds' biggest threat, and says the Welsh club's ability to bring in a few players - including Jobi McAnuff from West Ham last week - might even see them as dark horses in the promotion race.

Cardiff could be without Earnshaw at Portman Road. The frontman pulled out of the Welsh squad which faced Latvia on Wednesday due to a knee injury but Lennie Lawrence is hopeful he will be fit for Saturday.

Paul Parry (knee) and Danny Gabbidon (foot) were also forced out of the Welsh party but are both in with a chance of being involved on Saturday.

Lawrence expects to welcome Willie Boland and Peter Thorne back into his squad after their recent hip and neck injuries, although the pair are short of match practice and weren't helped by the postponement of a midweek reserve game against Plymouth. New signing Jobi McAnuff is likely to make his debut.

Saturday's referee is Phil Joslin from Newark. So far this season he has refereed three matches, showing seven yellow cards and no reds.

Last season he issued 88 yellows and six reds in 36 matches. Mr Joslin may be a good omen, having most recently officiated the Blues in last season's 6-1 home win against Burnley.

Town from: Davis, Price, Diallo, Richards, Wilnis, Barron, Mitchell, De Vos, Naylor, Magilton, Miller, Horlock, Dinning, Westlake, Murray, Bent, Bowditch, Kuqi, Couñago.

Photo: Action Images

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