Collin Quaner knows he will need to step up and fill Will Keane’s goalscoring shoes if the forward is sidelined by his hamstring injury.
Keane scored his third Ipswich goal in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Wigan before later leaving the game injured, with the severity of his hamstring issue not yet clear.
Quaner has yet to open his Ipswich account following his loan from Huddersfield and, with top-scorer Freddie Sears also out injured, the German knows he will need to fill the void if Keane is out for any length of time.
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“We don’t know what it is yet but I can only hope it isn’t too bad,” Quaner said of Keane.
“You always have to be careful with things like hamstrings.
“Will’s been playing really well and I enjoy playing next to him. He holds the ball great, is great with the ball and I can only hope he isn’t out for a long time.
“I hope I can step up and I will do my best but we can only get out of this situation as a team. We all need to step up and put ourselves on the line.
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“I’ll do everything I can to take that pressure and I feel good. I’m always happy to help the team and will do everything I can but of course I want to score goals.”
Next up for Ipswich is a home game with fourth-bottom Reading which the Blues simply must win if they are to have any hope of overhauling the nine-point gap between them and safety.
Quaner also insisted his side must put the heartbreaking nature of Saturday’s draw at Wigan out of their minds.
“We need to accept it because we have a massive, massive game in front of us against Reading and that’s what we need to focus on now,” he said.
“I’ll try not to think about the situation and then take it game by game but it certainly doesn’t make it any easier. But we will keep going.
“It’s pure and simple (we have to win). We’re in front of our home crowd and we need nothing but three points.”
Even if the Blues are able to beat the Royals and potentially cut the gap to safety to six points, Quaner knows Ipswich may require favours from elsewhere.
“I think we do but then we also need a bit of luck,” he said.
“But this isn’t something we can influence really so we have to take care of what we can do and win as many games as we can.”
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