Ipswich Town captain Luke Chambers is champing at the bit to return to action, but manager Mick McCarthy says he will only play when the physios say he’s ready.

The 31-year-old defender played every minute of every Championship game last season, despite suffering cracked ribs and facing an uncertain future, but has missed the last two league matches after landing awkwardly in the 4-3 win at Millwall.

Chambers completed the game at The Den, despite suffering the injury before half-time, with a scan subsequently showing he had a partial tear to two ankle ligaments and a minor fracture.

He definitely won’t be involved at QPR tomorrow, but is pushing to be available again for next Saturday’s visit of Bolton.

“Chambo being Chambo is being very positive,” said McCarthy with a smile. “He’s saying ‘I’ll be ready for the next game’ and I’ve said ‘yeah, the next Under-23 game’.

“Send him to Nottingham Forest (the team he almost joined back in January) to captain the Under-23s (on Tues, Sept 19) – that would be interesting!

“We’re pulling his leg a little bit, but he is making all the noises that he’ll be ready pretty soon.”

Asked if he might have to hold his enthusiastic skipper back a little, the Blues boss said: “No, no. We’ve got really good physios. I’ve had to tell Chambo before ‘you’re not ready’, irrespective of what he thinks.

“He’ll heal as quickly as anybody. I was amazed he played on at Millwall, that was incredible.

“As soon as he’s ready it will be nice to have him back, both as a player and a captain.

“He is a real example to any professional. You get players accused of not really being injured, but you can’t ever level that at Chambo!”

McCarthy also provided an update on his other two injured centre-backs. Adam Webster suffered a set-back to his long-term ankle injury in the 2-0 Carabao Cup win at Luton last month, while Tommy Smith has a hamstring injury following he return from back surgery.

“Adam Webster has been out doing some training with the physios today, while Tommy Smith is pretty optimistic that he’ll be out training again in the next couple of weeks,” said the Blues boss. “I think they’ll all be ready after the next international break.”

The next international break comes at the end of September, with Town due to play five games before then – QPR (a), Bolton (h), Leeds (a), Sunderland (h) and Bristol City (h).

Meanwhile, the Blues boss revealed that midfielder Emyr Huws will not be having surgery on his troublesome Achilles problem after lengthy consultations.

“Having been a footballer, if there’s something wrong with you then you want somebody to say ‘I can just cut that and do this and you’ll be mended’,” said McCarthy. “It doesn’t always work out perfectly though. A decision was made to have an operation, with the surgeon James Calder, who’s the best in the business, but we have gone back on that now because we think it can be done another way.

“The last thing you want is surgery, really. It’s a little bit frustrating for Emyr, because he’d got his head around surgery, but I think this will be better for him in the long run.”

McCarthy also revealed that Luke Hyam’s ‘knee is playing up a little bit’ following his recent return to Under-23 action, while Teddy Bishop is ‘just rehabbing’ after groin surgery.

Andre Dozzell has just started doing some rehab work on the AlterG treadmill following knee ligament surgery which will rule him out for the season.