Ipswich Town boss Mick Mccarthy says he ‘has his fingers crossed’ that striker David McGoldrick will be fit in time for next Sunday’s East Anglain derby with Norwich City at Carrow Road.

The club’s 16-goal top-scorer from 2012/13 has struggled to re-find his top form since recovering from a long-term knee injury and has suffered a couple of niggles since his recovery.

The latest, a thigh problem which has kept him out of action for the last two matches – wins against Sheffield Wednesday and Fulham – will also sideline him for back-to-back home games against Reading (tomorrow) and Birmingham (Tuesday).

“I was hoping he’d be okay but it’s just taking longer than we thought,” said McCarthy. “Norwich, I’d keep my fingers crossed for that one. We’re certainly not going to rush him back and we’ve got Luke Varney in now (on loan from Blackburn), so we’ve got three strikers.”

Meanwhile, Darren Ambrose and Stephen Hunt (both tight hamstrings) have joined Luke Hyam on the treatment table, while forward Noel Hunt looks set to miss the remainder of the campaign with the knee injury he suffered at Craven Cottage last weekend.

“Darren Ambrose has a tight hamstring still,” said McCarthy. “Having played against Sheffield Wednesday on the Tuesday, I think he thought he had a chance of the Saturday (at Fulham) and it was probably remiss of me not to say to him, after he passed himself fit on the Friday, that he wasn’t going to play against Fulham because he came out and he just overstretched it. That’s sad that because he did really well against Sheffield Wednesday.”