Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna reveals George Hirst has undergone knee surgery and no signings ‘imminent’ as former Brighton player Steven Alzate on trial

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed striker George Hirst has undergone knee surgery and will be out of action for around eight weeks while saying no further additions are ‘imminent’, despite former Brighton player Steven Alzate being on trial.

Hirst suffered the problem in the home friendly against Fortuna Düsseldorf a fortnight ago and missed the trip to Germany.

“He’s had a surgery on his knee, not as bad as it could have been, thankfully,” McKenna said in the wake of their pre-season ending with a 1-0 home win against OGC Nice today.

“It was a keyhole surgery so it’s a possibility of a recovery around the eight weeks after he had the surgery.

“Of course, it’s not great news, it’s a big loss. On the other hand, with the part of the knee it was an innocuous injury really, the part of the knee that it was in, it could have been more serious than that. It is what it is and he’s started his recovery now.”

Meanwhile, McKenna says no further additions are imminent and again remained tight-lipped on the Blues’ interest in Blackburn forward Sammie Szmodics, while Town are running the rule over trialist Alzate.

The Blues have made six signings so far with negotiations with Blackburn regarding Szmodics, who scored and assisted having come on as a sub in last night’s 4-2 Championship opening victory over Derby County, having been ongoing for more than a month.

Quizzed on whether any additions are close, McKenna said: “I don’t think there’s anything imminent to update on, to be honest. The club are working really hard, I’m working really hard, everyone’s working really hard to make additions to the squad.

“We would like, in an ideal world, to have been a couple of additions further along by now, but we are where we are.

“It’s a challenging market, there’s lots of challenges in there and I think there’s a balance to be found between getting in players who can help us as quickly as possible but also getting in the right players who are going to help us over the course of the season and over the course of the next 10 months, not just over the next 10 days.

“I think it’s important that we have and we continue to make decisions that are right for the bigger picture for the season and for the years ahead and we’re going to look to try and do that while also strengthening the team as prominently as we can.”

Asked about the Szmodics situation directly, he added: “Nothing to say. I’ll never speak about any player individually from another club. There’s nothing for me to add on that.”

Released Brighton midfielder Alzate, a 25-year-old Colombia international midfielder, played in the 30-minute training match which followed the main game.

“Steven Alzate was with us today, he trained with us on Thursday and Friday,” the Blues manager continued.

“A very good player, an experienced player for a relatively young age and isn’t with a club at the moment, so it was a chance for him to come in over the last couple of days, have a look at us, us to have a look at him and we’ll have some discussions from there. It was useful to have him with us.”

Also involved in that match, having come on as a sub in the main game, was Ali Al-Hamadi, his first action of pre-season following his adductor surgery early in the summer.

“There’s no doubt the forward positions are probably one of the areas where we’re a little bit light across the four forward positions,” McKenna said.

“Good to have him back, he’s been out for a long time, he was carrying the injury for a long time before that, so he hasn’t trained a lot with the team, so even do the 35 minutes he did today was probably a bit more than you would ideally want him to do, it’s very early for him.

“But the good thing is that he was out there on the grass, he was working hard, got some opportunities and he’ll be stronger for it and now hopefully he’ll get a really good week in next week.”

Also involved in the training match was Janoi Donacien, whose contract is up but is still at the club while he recovers from the groin surgery he underwent towards the end of last season. McKenna was asked about the St Lucia international’s situation.

“First and foremost, it’s brilliant to see him out on the pitch. He’s worked so hard, he’s had such a frustrating time with his injury,” he said.

“I know what he’s going through, also the area that he’s had the injury in and I know how complicated and how frustrating it can be, and it certainly has been that for him.

“It’s a big, big positive for today to get him out on the pitch looking strong, showing the competitor that he is and beyond that, that’s for discussions a little bit further down the line.

“That’s the first time he’s got on the pitch and every single day that Janoi is in the building with us, he’ll be an important member of this squad because he’s made such a fantastic contribution and everyone thinks so highly of him.

“Beyond that and what the rest of the season entails, that’s for me and the club to have conversations with Janoi about over the next few weeks and find out what the best solution is for all parties.”

McKenna says Harry Clarke is still some way off a return following his summer achilles surgery.

“He’s still not imminent, to be honest,” he said. “He’s had a frustrating time with the recovery, so he’s continuing to work hard and get advice and he’s still progressing in the gym, but he’s not in the grass yet, so realistically, it’s going to be quite a few weeks away, best case scenario, before we probably see him training with the team even.”

McKenna admits the squad is a little low on numbers at present with George Hirst (knee), Nathan Broadhead (hamstring) and Cameron Humphreys (thigh) having picked up problems in pre-season.

“We’re short on numbers going into the season, there’s no doubt about that,” he added. “We would want to be 22, 23 outfielders now, senior outfielders, 100 per cent fit and raring to go in an ideal world.

“But we don’t live in an ideal world, there are going to be challenges right through the season and there’s been lots of challenges across pre-season, to be honest.

“We’ve got a group of players who have come through a really solid pre-season, we’re getting numbers back at the moment over the last week or two, rather than losing numbers in general, which has been positive since probably the last game we were here.

“We’re in a stronger position than we were a week ago but we’d like to be deeper in strength, but it’s about the players who are fit and the players who are going to get the chance and have earned the right pull the shirt on against Liverpool next week.

“That’s where so much of my focus will be once we get into next week and I think, hopefully, that’s where the focus of everyone is, on supporting those players and coming together as a club for a wonderful occasion.”