Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has revealed why he didn't have a striker on the bench for this afternoon's 1-1 home draw with Southampton.
Neither new signing Chuba Akpom (Ajax, loan) or Ali Al-Hamadi were among the subs, with George Hirst leading the line for the full match.
On Akpom, McKenna said: "He trained separately at the early part of the week but he had some muscle tightness and soreness after we tried to get him up to speed, so we've had to slow it down a little bit.
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"Hopefully it won't be too much longer because it would be really important to have him with a group as soon as possible given we're shorter in the the midfield and forward positions than we want to be, not just in terms of numbers but also just the readiness of those players getting up to full speed and full fitness.
"Hopefully he'll get some more training under his belt this week and be available for a minutes soon."
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On Al-Hamadi's absence, the Blues boss said: "Ali picked up an injury on Thursday and wasn't available. That leaves us really, really short in that area."
Asked what the set-back was, McKenna added: "Calf. It's not very short-term, but hopefully not long-term either. It's probably going to be a few weeks."
McKenna also revealed he now doesn't expect Ipswich to complete the loan signing of Spanish striker Ivan Azon from Italian club Como.
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