IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell will make a late decision on the fitness of Tommy Smith ahead of Saturday’s Championship visit of Bristol City.

The centre-back – who has started the last five games for Town – flew straight out to New Zealand following last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton.

The All Whites international played in Tuesday night’s 3-2 friendly defeat to Jamaica, is flying back today and is set to report back to Playford Road tomorrow morning.

“We’ll monitor him and see how tired he is. It might be a late decision on Saturday,” said Blues boss Jewell. “Sonks (Ibrahima Sonko) is fit so we have got an experienced replacement if Tommy isn’t ready.”

Asked if he would be making many alterations to his team following last weekend’s defeat, Jewell – who has no other injury worries – added: “I always consider making changes, but I think it’s important we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

“We weren’t thinking everything in the garden was rosy after four wins, but also think just because we’ve lost one game we necessarily need to make wholesale changes.”

– See tomorrow’s EADT and Ipswich Star for all the latest Blues news.