Kyle Edwards is facing a significant spell on the sidelines after suffering a quad injury in training this week.

The winger, signed from West Brom in the summer, is likely to miss the majority of Ipswich’s remaining 14 matches this season after suffering the muscle tear during the Blues’ preparation for this weekend’s game with Burton Albion.

The full extent of the injury is not yet known, but boss Kieran McKenna is expecting the 24-year-old to be out for several weeks at least.

“We had an injury during the week to Kyle Edwards, which was a shame,” McKenna said.

“He’s still talking to the specialists but he has a tear in his quad which will have him out for a fair chunk of time. It’s not going to be a short one.

“It’s going to be a challenge for him to get back too soon before the end of the season.

“It’s a real shame for him and a real shame for the squad. He’s a really positive person who doesn’t get down too easily so, while this is a set-back, my experience of him as a person is that he will stay positive and use the time well to work in the gym and come back fresh with a clean state of mind.”

Edwards has only played once under McKenna, coming off the bench in the home victory over Gillingham, but the Town boss had been impressed with his training displays prior to his injury.

The Ipswich boss and his staff saw him as a potential option on a right flank regularly occupied by Wes Burns.

“He had played a good amount of minutes during the first half of the season and hadn’t played loads of football in his young career so far.

“He had Covid when I first arrived so that put him on the back foot a little, while some of the other boys were able to get a little bit of a head start on him in terms of minutes.

“But he’d been training well and been waiting for his opportunity.

“Wes (Burns) has been in fantastic form on that right hand side, which was a position Kyle had been working hard on in training and had made a good impression. We thought he could do well there as well as the other positions he can play.

“I’m sure his opportunity was going to come soon, so it’s a real shame he has this injury now.”