Ipswich Town team news: Kieran McKenna confirms Jens Cajuste will miss trip to West Ham and ‘late calls’ will be made

Midfielder Jens Cajuste will miss Ipswich Town’s trip to the London Stadium on Saturday (3pm) with a knee injury while there will be some ‘pretty late fitness calls’ before the match, boss Kieran McKenna has confirmed.

The 25-year-old summer signing from Napoli made his first start for the Blues at Southampton two weeks ago, but was not involved in the matchday squad that took on Aston Villa at the weekend.

“He has a little issue with his knee, hopefully not too major, so he wasn’t available last weekend,” said McKenna.

“I thought he had a good first showing against Southampton but he had a little issue after that and has missed the last week’s training.

“Hopefully he’ll be back after the international break.

“We have a couple of little issues from across the last game and the training week.

“We have a got a few being assessed before Saturday. There’s a chance that there will be one or two changes to the team, but some of them are going to be pretty late calls over the next 24 hours.

“Of course, without helping any of the opponents too much, we’ve got one or two who are getting a medical assessment in the last few days.”

With the absence of Cajuste, McKenna was boosted by the return of England international Kalvin Phillips for the visit of Villa. The 28-year-old slotted back into the starting line-up and will face his former side this weekend, whom he made 10 appearances for after joining the Hammers on loan in January.

Asked whether he has spoken about his time at the London Stadium with Phillips, McKenna said: “Not massively. It was a pretty short period in a relatively long career.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it but I’m sure he would’ve liked to have played a little bit more.

“I do know that January loan moves when you’re not playing very much before you arrive, percentage chance of that working out, in terms of starting every week, playing 90 minutes every week, it very often doesn’t work like that because it’s hard to catch up in a season with team-mates who are 90-minute fit in the Premier League.

“That’s no big rare occurrence in football. He’s with us now. I think he’s happy here, we’re happy with him.”