Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed left-back Greg Leigh should be back in training later this month having suffered a compression fracture to his leg in September’s 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.

The Jamaica international hadn’t been expected back until around Christmas and has been one of two longer term knocks alongside forward Sone Aluko, who is making good progress.

McKenna says Aluko is still expected back at around that time having suffered a knee injury in the 6-0 Papa Johns Trophy tie against Northampton at the end of August.

“He’s getting along OK, everything’s on schedule, he’s working very hard here at the training ground,” McKenna said regarding Aluko.

“At the moment we’re hoping it’ll be in and around the Christmas period before he’ll be back in full training and ready to compete in matches. But he’s stepping up his rehab work here at the training ground.

“He’s been very good around our group, been watching all the games and it’s always good to get his opinion from afar and is a good influence around the senior players and, of course, around the younger players in our squad, but also some of the academy players who he has a relationship with, who he mentors to a certain extent.

“As I’ve said before, a great person to have around the club and he’s still contributing here behind the scenes.”

Regarding Leigh, McKenna said: “He’s a bit further down the line, he’s progressing well and hopefully no more than a couple of weeks away.

“I think he’s very close to starting some work on the grass. He’s a bit ahead of Sone’s schedule and will maybe in and around training towards the end of this month.

“It was one of those injuries where it was about seeing how the bone healed and there wasn’t such a clear timescale on it as there was with Sone’s.

“It will be good to have him back, we’ve missed him. Leif [Davis] has done terrifically and that’s obvious to say when he’s had the credit and had the Player of the Month awards of the last couple of months, but he’s done really well.

“But it’s a highly-demanding position for us and a high physical output position and missing Greg and missing Kane [Vincent-Young] over the last couple of weeks has put a big load onto Leif and we look forward to having Greg back and having the options in that position to work through the minutes together.”

McKenna says there are no new injuries among his senior players ahead of Monday’s FA Cup trip to Bracknell.

“It’s pretty much the same group as we’ve had, so no big changes,” he said. “The boys who are injured are still a little bit away, so we’ve been working with a tighter group over the last month and that’s brought challenges and there’ll be more challenges over the next few weeks.

“But it’s enjoyable as well, keeps everyone involved, the squad is very close, there’s nobody really missing out or nobody that feels too far from the team at the moment and everyone knows they have a part to play. We’ll enjoy those challenges and embrace the challenges of having a slightly tighter group.”

Town’s U21s side this afternoon has one or two regulars missing, including right-back Edwin Agbaje and forward Tawanda Chirewa.

Cameron Humphreys appears certain to be involved on Monday but does the absence of those other names mean they’ll also be making the trip to Berkshire?

“They have a few injuries as well,” McKenna said. “There will be one or two involved in the squad on Monday. I don’t want to make Bracknell’s job any easier by identifying which players [might travel].

“There are one or two injuries in the U21s squad and one or two who will be with us on Monday night. They’re a little bit stretched at the moment and we’ll see on Monday night who travels with the first-team squad.”

Midfielder Lee Evans (knee) and Gassan Ahadme (foot) remain unavailable.

Meanwhile, centre-half Luke Woolfenden is back with the squad, his partner having given birth to their first child earlier in the week.

“First of all, we’re delighted for Luke and his partner and everyone’s very happy for them and nice to get the good news when his little girl arrived,” McKenna said. “That’s the obvious priority and the main feeling.

“From then, of course, it’s about making sure there isn’t too much of a drop-off in the physical level, so he’s been there to support where he’s been needed over the last couple of days, but he’s been back at the training ground today and started to get himself going again.

“He’s got the challenge now of being a new dad and balancing a fairly important job, which is being a centre-half for Ipswich Town, so that’s the nature of it and we’ll support him with that and he’ll hopefully do a very good job at both of his important jobs that he has now.”

Photo: Matchday Images

PortmanTerrorist added 15:39 - Nov 4 Both have been big misses, never more so than at Charlton where bringing on both would have either Aluko keeping the ball up the pitch, and if not, Leigh does not get beaten in the air at the far post. Critical to our promotion push and so great news on both fronts.
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rdibble added 15:49 - Nov 4 Hows that possible he didnt play against Plymouth daaa
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PhilTWTD added 16:15 - Nov 4 My error, getting mixed up with Ahadme. Injury suffered in the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.
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rdibble added 16:28 - Nov 4 spot on Phil
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Orraman added 10:34 - Nov 5 With both Sone and Greig appearing to be on track to return around Christmas this could be very important over the hectic festive collection of games. Perhaps Evans and Ahadme might take longer but these two plus the return of Camara should give the squad a boost into the second half of season. There will of course be more knocks along the way with no doubt a further suspension for Morsy in due course but hopefully this little run of more serious injuries will now pass

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