NATHAN Abbey will take his place on the Ipswich bench on Sunday with the blessing of brother and Norwich City striker Zema, writes Derek Davis.The Blues have taken the 25-year-old on a one-month contract as cover for Kelvin Davis following an injury to regular back-up stopper Lewis Price.

NATHAN Abbey will take his place on the Ipswich bench on Sunday with the blessing of brother and Norwich City striker Zema, writes Derek Davis.

The Blues have taken the 25-year-old on a one-month contract as cover for Kelvin Davis following an injury to regular back-up stopper Lewis Price.

Abbey is a former team-mate of Davis at Luton Town and has previously worked with Town's goalkeeping coach Malcolm Webster.

Blues boss Joe Royle said: "Nathan will be back in again on Friday to finalise the paperwork and will be in the squad. He knows Kelvin and Malcolm very well so there is no disruption at all with him fitting right in."

While he will make the squad for Sunday's game after meeting his new team-mates yesterday, brother Zema is a long-term injury victim at City.

Zema last night hoped the move would provide a springboard for his younger sibling.

Zema doesn't think he will be able to learn any secrets from his sibling.

"I don't think he will have been there long enough to give me an insight into what they'll do," he said.

"I spoke to him this week and I knew something was in the pipeline and I'm happy for him.

"It puts him back in the shop window again and, although I'm at Norwich, their biggest rivals, I can say that he's going to a good club. He could have done a lot worse."

Abbey started his career at Luton before moving to Chesterfield and briefly Northampton. He has made more than 100 league appearances but this year drifted into non-league football with Stevenage Borough and more recently has been training at Luton and Macclesfield.

Meanwhile, Richard Naylor has resumed training and will be pressing for a first-team return on Sunday, leaving Joe Royle will a pleasant dilemma with John McGreal and Georges Santos also available.

It is the same up front for Royle with Pablo Counago, Darren Bent, Shekfi Kuqi and Dean Bowditch all in contention as only Alun Armstrong is out of the reckoning with a gashed leg.

And it is the same in midfield with Alan Mahon and Martijn Reuser itching to start but finding Ian Westlake difficult to dislodge.