BLUES striker Jon Walters will battle through the pain barrier once again to face Southampton on Saturday.Ipswich's leading scorer with 12 goals needs to be nursed through to produce the goods for Ipswich on a week to week basis.

Derek Davis

BLUES striker Jon Walters will battle through the pain barrier once again to face Southampton on Saturday.

Ipswich's leading scorer with 12 goals needs to be nursed through to produce the goods for Ipswich on a week to week basis.

Walters has been struggling with a sore knee for the past few weeks, which has left him unable to train during the week but being patched up ready to play on the Saturday.

It may mean an operation at the end of the season but for now Walters is taking it literally game by game.

He said: “The 24-year-old has often not trained during the week this season thanks to a knee problem but insists he feels ready for the end of season run-in.

“There are some weeks when I don't train until the Friday but the physios have been brilliant with me and they have managed to patch me up. They bring new ideas for me every day for me to try and it works.

“I hurt my knee in the first few weeks of the season and it's been coming and going all year but we've managed it.”

Walters has urged team-mate Jason De Vos to stay with the Blues and would leave a big whole if he were to retire at the end of the season.

The 34-year-old De Vos said earlier this week that he would retire from playing football if he were not offered a new deal to stay and Walters hopes he get's at least another year.

Walters said: “He would be a big miss if he wasn't here. He is a colossus for us at the back and he's been fantastic for us this year.

“If you play against a big striker then you need someone like him at the back. Jason battles for every ball and every header - you need someone like that in the team.

“If he didn't play then he would be a miss because he gives 110 per cent every time he goes out.”

De Vos showed at the weekend there is still plenty left in those veteran legs according to Walters with the former Wigan defender putting in a man of the match display in bottling up Ricardo Fuller at Stoke.

Fuller is widely acknowledged as one of the best strikers in the Championship but De Vos kept him on a tight leash all afternoon although Walters said the only man to make a decision on his future is De Vos himself.

Walters said: “We saw on Saturday when he came up against one of the best strikers in the league Ricardo Fuller that he can still handle that type of player.

“But it's his decision at the end of the day and it will depend on what next year brings.

“His family is settled here but he will be going back to Canada when he finishes. If anyone in their 30's is offered a contract then they would normally take it but it's his decision.”