Ipswich Town's injury concern as Kieran McKenna outlines pivotal final day squad decisions

Kieran McKenna admits Ipswich Town have a number of minor injury concerns to deal with going into Saturday's all-important clash with Huddersfield Town at Portman Road. After picking up the win over Coventry City at the CBS Arena on Tuesday night, the Tractor Boys know that they are now on the verge of winning promotion to the Premier League.

A point against Huddersfield will be enough to secure the club's return to the top flight after 22 years away and leave Leeds United having to progress through the play-offs to keep their own hopes of promotion alive. The only way Leeds would have a chance of leapfrogging Ipswich to finish inside the top two would be if the Suffolk outfit lost to the Terriers, who were all but relegated last weekend following their draw with Birmingham City at the John Smith's Stadium.

The odds are against the Whites then, but they might be heartened by the news that Ipswich are carrying a few issues heading into the weekend fixture. Wes Burns, who has only just returned from injury, was withdrawn with a cramp issue in the West Midlands in midweek, while Leif Davis, formerly of Leeds of course, and Harry Clarke have also been struggling with injuries of late.

McKenna insists there are no serious injuries within the Tractor Boys camp, but the minor problems some of his players are dealing with could lead to difficult decisions being made on Saturday morning.

“We’ve got a quite a few, as you do at this stage of the season, especially coming off two quick games,” he said ahead of hosting the West Yorkshire outfit. “We’ve got a few knocks and a few niggles, we’re going to assess one or two in the morning, which can happen when you’ve got a quick turnaround.

“We’ve no long-term injuries, no injuries that as we stand here today have immediately ruled anyone out of the squad, but we do have some players who are carrying some issues that might determine their involvement tomorrow or how many minutes they can play.

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“We’re going to take all those decisions to Saturday morning and make sure the team we go out with has enough freshness and readiness to go and deliver.”

Should Ipswich have enough left in the tank to get the job done against Andre Breitenreiter’s Huddersfield, Leeds will claim third spot in the Championship, meaning they’ll face off against one of Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion or Hull City in a two-legged semi-final.

The first of those games would involve the Whites playing away on Sunday May 12, before returning to Elland Road for the pivotal second leg on Thursday, May 17. Daniel Farke’s side would then hope to progress to Wembley Stadium on May 26, where promotion will be on the line in a 90 minute, do or die clash at the national stadium.