Striker Connor Wickham could be back on the bench when the Blues take on Leicester City at Portman Road on Saturday (Sky Sports Two, 5pm, KO 5.20pm). The England U21 international is one of a number of injured players close to a return to the first team, while under fire Town manager Roy Keane is waiting on defender Damien Delaney and midfielder Andros Townsend, who been suffering with a virus.
Keane says his injury list is starting to reduce, although most of the absentees are still a week away from a return: "Hopefully Márton Fülöp’s going to train today [Thursday], Connor Wickham trained on Wednesday, Luke Hyam as well.
"Saturday’s probably too soon for them, but in terms of the feel-good factor it’s still nice to see these boys back in the training pitch.”
Keeper Fülöp has been out with an ankle problem and midfielder Hyam with a torn hamstring, while Wickham has had a thigh injury and is the most likely to be involved against the Foxes: "If Connor trains well on Thursday and Friday, he might get in the squad. I won’t start the boy, but I could put him on the bench because he has been a good impact player for us.
"Some players do come off the bench and have more of an impact than others, and Connor has certainly done that for us.”
Andros Townsend was absent from Wednesday training with a virus which also caused Damien Delaney to miss Thursday’s session, but the Blues boss is hopeful the duo will be OK.
Keane insists that Delaney, who hasn’t played since being sent off at Norwich, will come into his thoughts if he gets over his bug: "If he trains on Friday he’ll be in contention, like he has been over the last few weeks.”
Gareth McAuley is back running after his achilles operation but won’t return to match action until January, while Alan Quinn still remains on the sidelines having been given an injection to try to help him get over the groin problem he suffered in pre-season.
Keane says he was looking at his team from all angles during his few days away in Manchester: "Maybe change the team, maybe change the shape, look at the preparation.
"You’re looking at your players every day of the week - perhaps not be quite so attack-minded, maybe put more attackers on the pitch, there are lots of aspects we need to look at. Sometimes you’ve got to take a gamble, throw a young boy in or whatever it might be.”
The Blues boss’s selection may partly be based on a training match earlier in the week, which ended 3-0 with Jason Scotland, Rory Fallon and David Norris getting the goals: "On Wednesday we had an 11 v 11, not a passing drill, not finishing, 11 v 11 — go out there and do the business. And some players took their opportunity and others didn’t.
"Every day we give players an opportunity and the best thing is 11 v 11, which you can do when there’s no midweek match.
"You find out about your players in 11 v 11s in training. I used to love 11 v 11s in training because that’s what football’s about, it’s not about doing drills and sit-ups and going down the gym.”
Despite the run of six successive league losses, Keane believes a win can come if his side cut out the errors and match the overall displays of a couple of recent games: "I don’t think we deserved to lose last weekend, but if you don’t score goals it’s very hard to win football matches. We’ll reflect. The players have had a couple of days off themselves, that might do them good.”
The Town manager says Sven-Goran Eriksson has already made progress at the Walkers Stadium: "Leicester have got a good squad. Sven’s not messed about, he’s got players in. They have experience and a good physical presence, whether that’s Roman Bednar, Paul Gallagher, Darius Vassell, Andy King or Martyn Waghorn, who I was interested in, but ended up going for about £3 million.
"The clubs that are going to do well in this division have goalscorers in their pack. Leicester scored five last weekend, and Matt Fryatt’s not even in their squad at the moment and he scored a lot of goals last season. It’s a tough game.”
With Márton Fülöp not yet ready to return, Brian Murphy will keep his place in goal. Gianni Zuiverloon will be at right-back with Mark Kennedy on the left having come through last week’s game without suffering any recurrence of his hamstring injury.
Keane has decisions to make at the centre of the defence with Damien Delaney perhaps returning if he’s OK after his illness, while Darren O’Dea will also be pushing for inclusion, perhaps in his more natural role at the heart of the defence. Alternatively, Tommy Smith and Troy Brown could keep their places.
Grant Leadbitter and David Norris are likely to continue in the centre of the midfield with Andros Townsend — again, if he’s over his illness — on the left rather than Jack Colback with Keane likely to be more attacking at home. Carlos Edwards will probably be on the right.
Rory Fallon and Jason Scotland linked well at Preston, although without scoring, and the Town manager will probably want to give them another chance against the Foxes. Keane says he has been impressed with Ronan Murray in training, while Connor Wickham is likely to get a chance from the bench if he is fit with Tamás Priskin failing to make much of an impact as a sub last week.
Leicester, who sit in 13th in the table, five places and four points above the Blues, are expected to give a debut to keeper Chris Kirkland, who is on loan with his hometown club from Wigan.
Fellow loanee Roman Bednar, a West Brom team-mate of Gianni Zuiverloon, is unlikely to be involved due to a bruised foot.
Martyn Waghorn, who was a youngster at Sunderland under Keane’s management, is also expected to miss out due to illness, while defender Curtis Davies (groin) and striker Darius Vassell (back) are likely to be OK to face the Blues.
Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has recommitted himself to the Foxes after links with a number of other jobs since he moved to the Walkers Stadium in early October, taking over from Paulo Sousa.
Leicester’s form has improved at home under Eriksson but less so away, where they have a record of won two, drawn one and lost seven, something which is frustrating the Swede: "After every home game I feel very optimistic, and then we play away and I get back on the bus and think, 'How did we lose that?'
"The last two away games [at Bristol City and Watford] have been frustrating. It is how we feel when we lose games like we did there and I think that it isn't just me, it is everyone."
Eriksson says it’s never easy meeting teams on runs like Town’s: "They haven't won for many games and of course that means we are going to meet a very, very dangerous football team.
"They can't go on losing every game, sooner or later they will win and hopefully it's later. It's always very difficult to meet teams like that because they are playing for their lives.
"It doesn't really matter who we meet, if we play as we can, we can compete with any team. If we are not aggressive and not at our best, then we can lose against any team in this league."
Town central defender Gareth McAuley joined the Blues from Leicester in the summer of 2008 for £1.1 million, while McAuley’s usual central defensive partner Damien Delaney’s first English club was the then-Premiership Foxes, the Irishman joining the Foxes from Cork City for £50,000 in 2000. Delaney made seven starts and three sub appearances before moving on to Hull City in 2002.
Keeper Márton Fülöp spent four months on loan at Leicester at the start of the 2007/08 season when a Tottenham player, making 27 appearances.
First team coach Tony Loughlan was a Foxes player for three years before joining Nottingham Forest in 1989 having failed to make a senior appearance. He was also an academy coach with the Midlanders between 2001 and 2006 prior to joining Roy Keane at Sunderland and then the Blues.
Town have had the upper hand historically, winning 25 games between the sides (25 in the league), drawing 17 (16) and losing 21 (19).
The sides last met at the Walkers Stadium in January when the game ended 1-1. David Norris pressured Ryan McGivern into an own goal 20 seconds after the start with Steve Howard equalising for the Foxes before the break. Earlier last season the teams played out a 0-0 draw at Portman Road.
As well as being on Sky in the UK, the match is also being screened across the globe, although with a three-and-a-half hour delay in the US.
Saturday’s referee is Select Group official Stuart Attwell, famed for having given the ‘ghost goal’ in the Watford-Reading game in September 2008. Attwell, who has shown 35 yellow cards and one red in nine games so far this season, last took control of the Blues in the 1-1 draw with West Brom at Portman Road in January.
In that game the Warwickshire-based official awarded Town a somewhat generous penalty for a Jonas Olsson push on Damien Delaney and booked five players, Arran Lee-Barrett and Grant Leadbitter and three Baggies players.
Squad from: Murphy, Lee-Barrett, Zuiverloon, Kennedy, Delaney, Smith, Brown, O’Dea, Eastman, Norris, Leadbitter, Colback, Healy, Peters, Livermore, Townsend, Edwards, O’Connor, Scotland, Fallon, Wickham, Priskin, Murray.
Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk