Ipswich Town manager Paul Lambert has revealed that the club will continue to try and sign a young striker on loan having already missed out on two targets.

The Blues boss is short of forward options at present, with Oli Hawkins set for six weeks out following knee surgery, Kayden Jackson now serving a three-game suspension following his red card in Tuesday night's 1-0 home loss to Sunderland and James Norwood continuing to struggle with a hamstring problem.

With just Aaron Drinan and Freddie Sears to call upon at present, Lambert is keen to make use of the transfer window before it shuts on Monday.

However, with Town virtually maxed out on the salary cap rules, they are restricted to signing someone who was under the age of 21 at the start of 2020.

“It’s as what it was on Tuesday," said Lambert. "We’ll see if we can get a young one in. It has to be that because of the way the salary cap is.

“We can’t go out and buy Cristiano Ronaldo. It has to be a young one. And that’s if you can get them.

“We’ve tried for a couple that we lost out on to other teams. We’ll try again."

Lambert insisted, when he first arrived at Portman Road in 2018, that he would cut down the club's use of the loan market as that was 'akin to throwing your money in the street'.

If a striker does arrive then it would be five loan players in the current squad (along with Mark McGuinness, Keanan Bennetts, Luke Thomas and Josh Harrop).

“It has to be that way because we don’t have the finances," said Lambert, when the above was out to him.

“Josh (Harrop) is obviously not available to us yet, while I thought Luke (Thomas) looked really exciting the other night.

“It needs to be that sort of higher level player. But it would be a young one.

“It's needs must. We can’t go out and buy anyone. We don’t have the resources that a lot of people probably think we have."

It's understood that Town made several young players available for loan last week, including Armando Dobra, Idris El Mizouni and Brett McGavin.

“Some of the young ones people have been enquired about," said Lambert. "They need men’s football rather than Under-23 games."

Asked if there might be any senior players exiting before the deadline, the Blues boss said: "Number one, people have got to want you. We’re not forcing anybody out at all. They have to fight to get in the side and cope with all the other stuff as well.

“But first and foremost people have got to want you."