Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna reveals George Hirst set to miss festive fixtures while Kalvin Phillips and Ben Johnson doubts for Nottingham Forest

George Hirst is set to miss Ipswich Town’s festive fixtures while Kalvin Phillips and Ben Johnson will undergo fitness tests ahead of the Blues’ Premier League match at Nottingham Forest on Saturday (3pm), manager Kieran McKenna has revealed.

At his pre-match press conference, the Blues boss also confirmed his players came through the 1-1 home draw with Manchester United on Sunday unscathed, with centre-back Jacob Greaves pushing for a return along with forward Nathan Braodhead staking his claim for his first minutes of the season.

However, the Town boss admitted he had been given disappointing news on striker Hirst’s knee injury, which the former Leicester City frontman suffered in the 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur, following his latest scan.

Asked about the health of his squad, who occupy the final relegation spot but are only below Wolverhampton Wanderers on goal difference, McKenna said: “We’ve had no fresh issues from the games we’ve had, if I’m correct.

“We still have Kalvin, who missed last weekend, Ben, who missed last weekend, as well as some of our longer-term injuries.

“They’re still being assessed and we’re going to have to make some decisions and judgements going into this weekend. But in terms of the Man United game, everyone came through it well.”

Regarding Hirst’s knee injury he sustained just ahead of the international break, which had previously been described as keeping him out for ‘weeks and weeks’,McKenna said:“George has had another scan and it wasn’t particularly great news. We were hoping that it might be particularly great news, and it wasn’t.

“It’s going to be a period of time, certainly. We’re still not exactly sure, but it’s going to take us through the Christmas period, we think.”

On a more positive note, he confirmed that Greaves – who had played every minute of the first seven Premier League matches ahead of suffering a hamstring injury at West Ham United on October 5 – and Nathan Broadhead – who had picked up a groin problem having previously had a hamstring issue in pre-season – are both ready to return to the squad.

“He’s training well,” McKenna said on the latter Wales international.

“He had an injury before the Tottenham game in the week building up to that one, so he missed that game and unfortunately wasn’t able to go on international duty because he’s eager to get game time and we’re eager for him to get game time.

“It’s been longer than any of us would have wanted with his injury very early in pre-season that ruled him out well into the autumn.

“He’s now training well and not feeling any problems.

“We know the talent that he has and that he can play a big role in helping us create and score goals and I feel like there’s every chance that he’ll have his opportunities to do that over the next few weeks with the way the fixtures are coming.

“He’s ready to go and hopefully he can have a big impact for us.”

Saturday’s opponents Nottingham Forest have enjoyed a storming start to the season under Nuno Espírito Santo, but have dropped from third to seventh in the table after suffering back-to-back defeats from gameweek 10, a 3-1 home defeat to Newcastle United followed by Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Arsenal.