Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna is grappling with a significant injury crisis as his team prepares to face Everton at Goodison Park. The Blues recently suffered a 3-0 defeat at Newcastle United, with only 13 fully fit senior outfield players available. The injury list is extensive, with key players such as Aro Muric, Axel Tuanzebe, and Kalvin Phillips among those sidelined. Additionally, Jens Cajuste and Omari Hutchinson were only fit enough to be unused substitutes, and Ben Johnson is set to serve a suspension following a red card in the previous match.
Kieran McKenna said: “I’m not going to go through everyone individually again, but last week we were in a really difficult spot and it’s not very dissimilar this week. There’s going to be quite a lot of late judgement calls, genuinely. We’ve got quite a few players who, if not ready this week, have a really good chance for next week (at home to Brentford). If you take last week, for example, we’ve gone to Newcastle. Previously at home they were 4-0 up at half-time to Crystal Palace and beat Man United 4-1 and could have been double that. And we went there and had to play four centre-halves across the back line, two centre-halves at full-back. Jacob Greaves has only played one or two times at left-back for Hull and more as an inverted full-back. Jack Taylor is making his first away start in the league since, if I’m not wrong, Middlesbrough in the Championship about 16 months before that. And we had people on the bench who weren’t even available. It does test you and you have to think differently. To be honest, you have to set up differently than how we would like to set up and the way that we believe is the way to keep taking the club forward. That’s why the red card was frustrating because I think for 37 minutes we did a pretty good job of really frustrating the opponent and had enough moments. It’s not how I particularly enjoy to set up, it’s not how we’ve been successful and it’s not the base of how we’ll be successful in the future. But having real problems with availability, having to move people out of position and having people playing who maybe aren’t even fully fit, we have to find a way to be adaptable. We’ve had that at times this season and I think we’ll all be stronger for it.”
The injury woes have forced McKenna to make tactical adjustments, including deploying four centre-halves across the backline and using players out of their usual positions. This situation has tested the team’s adaptability, as McKenna acknowledged the need to set up differently than preferred. Despite the challenges, he remains optimistic about the team’s ability to overcome these hurdles and believes the experience will ultimately strengthen the squad. With several players potentially returning next week, Ipswich Town will be hoping for a more favorable outcome in their upcoming fixtures.
