Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy is considering freshening his side up for tomorrow’s visit of Charlton Athletic.

His side are third in the Championship form table, with only the top two of Leicester and Derby having claimed more points from the last eight matches.

The Blues are unbeaten in seven matches, with the same starting XI having been named for the last five games. Normally it would be a no-brainer – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Stick with a winning side.

However, the fact that this tomorrow afternoon’s visit of Charlton is the third match of a hectic spell which will include four games in just 10 days, has to come into consideration.

McCarthy rotated his line-up after the wins against Charlton and Blackburn at the start of December and on both occasions the new-look line-up came up trumps (beating Blackburn and Huddersfield).

Tomorrow afternoon, the manager who has used the fewest players in the division (22), looks set to pre-empt any jadedness once more.

“You’ll see what team I pick at three o’clock,” said the Blues boss. “But I guess the temptation is to have a look and do something (different) because they do work hard and really put a shift in by closing teams down.

“The game against Bournemouth was a really tough game. Bearing in mind we had to travel to Doncaster and Bournemouth over Christmas, there’s some hard yards gone in there. I am considering changes, yes. We’ll see.”

After tomorrow’s match, Ipswich host League One side Preston North End in the FA Cup on Saturday before QPR are the visitors to Suffolk the following weekend.

“We’ve had the cyrotherapy chamber here, the ice chamber, to help them recover. That does help, there is no question of that,” said McCarthy.

“Physically we are as good, if not better, than any other team I would say. They’ve been outstanding with the yards that they cover and the high intensity that they play.

“The recovery has been remarkable considering we’ve used the least amount of players in the division.

“The fitness guys and the physios take a lot of credit because we haven’t got the biggest squad and they’re keeping them fit.

“It’s a tight-knit squad and that, in a strange way, is nice because they all get to play. There’s not three or four who have no chance of playing.”

– See tomorrow’s EADT and Ipswich Star for full match preview.