Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna confirms George Edmundson and Cieran Slicker unavailable for Middlesbrough visit
George Edmundson is unavailable for tomorrow’s visit of ninth-placed Middlesbrough after he picked up an ankle injury in Tuesday’s stalemate with Watford at Portman Road, Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has confirmed.
The 26-year-old defender made his ninth appearance and eighth league start of the season for the Blues against the Hornets but was forced off the pitch with 10 minutes remaining after he failed to carry on having gone down moments beforehand.
The hope is that it will only be a short-term injury.
“George won’t be involved. Thankfully it doesn’t seem too serious but he’s got some swelling in the ankle so he won’t be involved,” said McKenna.
“He’s been a really important member of the squad and he’s stepped up at different times.
“You need that to be successful. In the centre-back position, I think all the teams would want to have four strong centre-backs ideally and we felt like we’ve had that through the course of the season.
“He’s been an important player for us. He’s come back from a big operation in the summer, it’s been a good season.
“Of course, he would’ve liked to have played more, which is natural for every player, he’s trained well, shown a real maturity in how he’s gone about his business and he’s stepped in at important times for the team.”
Goalkeeper Cieran Slicker is also unavailable tomorrow’s match after he rolled his ankle, but McKenna stated the injury does not look like it will be long-term.
Henry Gray, who was recalled from his loan spell at Chelmsford earlier this week, will be with the squad.
The Town boss, who was announced as the Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month for March today, made four changes to his starting line-up for the visit of Watford after he revealed his squad had become ‘stretched’.
He said: “Anyone who didn’t start on Wednesday, the hope is that any of those who did come back in the team for the following game would be fresher, that’s one of the purposes of being able to rotate the team when we need.
“We’ve got a couple of other little issues that will be assessed on the day of the game.
“We know it’s the last game of the busy block, we’ve got two weeks off after this game so the boys are in good spirits and determined to leave it all out on the pitch tomorrow.”
If league-leaders Leicester City drop points in their clash relegation-threatened Plymouth tonight (Friday), Town will have the opportunity to climb back to the top of the table with a win over Michael Carrick’s side (3pm).
