Ipswich Town have been handed a major boost with the news that Sam Morsy has declared himself unavailable for African Cup of Nations selection.

The EADT and Ipswich Star understands that the Blues' influential skipper has told the Egyptian FA that he does not want to be considered as a bit-part player and would rather stay in Suffolk and focus on a Premier League promotion push. 

Morsy, whose father emigrated to the UK from Cairo, represented the Pharaohs at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and was immensely proud to be recalled to the international set-up in September just gone.

However, after making two brief late cameo appearances against Ethiopia and Tunisia - which took his number of international caps to nine - he was subsequently left out of squads for games in October and November.

That left Town manager Kieran McKenna uncertain about whether his captain, an integral part of the team, could miss as many as five games - Sunderland (h), Leicester (a), Rotherham (h), Preston (a) and West Brom (a) - when AFCON took place in the Ivory Coast between January 13 and February 11. Morsy has now taken that uncertainty out the air, with this likely to spell the end of his international career.

The 32-year-old's deflected late strike secured Ipswich a 1-1 draw against Championship leaders Leicester on Boxing Day. That goal keeps the second-place Blues five points in front of Southampton and eight ahead of Leeds. 

The Town captain will serve a one-game ban tomorrow night when Ipswich host QPR at Portman Road following an FA charge, while his next booking will see him hit with a further two-match suspension.

Morsy's decision follows on from his midfield partner Massimo Luongo recently announcing his international retirement for Australia. The 31-year-old had looked set to be going away to the Asian Cup in January/February.

Ipswich will, however, be without centre-backs Cameron Burgess and Elkan Baggott for that tournament in Qatar. Burgess has been called up by the Socceroos, while Baggott will almost certainly be in the Indonesia squad.

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Speaking at this afternoon's pre-QPR press conference, McKenna said: "I've not had any confirmation on that from Sam or the Egyptian FA to that regard. As it stands the squad is not announced until the 30th of December. Until that point there's nothing I can really confirm."