Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy is ‘hoping’ he doesn’t receive any bids for his best players before the transfer window shuts on Monday night.

The Blues boss has just 16 senior outfield players available for Saturday’s game at Derby County, with Conor Sammon ineligible to face his parent club, Cameron Stewart and Stephen Hunt still sidelined and Paul Taylor, Anthony Wordsworth, Jack Marriott and Freddie Veseli all out on loan.

Centre-back Tommy Smith has been linked with a move to Crystal Palace in the national media this morning though, with Neil Warnock having just taken the manager’s job at the Premier League club.

And McCarthy was cryptic with his comments when asked if there was likely to be any movement at Portman Road ahead of the window closing at the start of next week. He said: “I don’t know, maybe. If somebody came in it would probably be a loan. I’m just hoping it will be nobody out because if the phone rings I guess it will come down to what people perceive to be our best players. I don’t want to lose anybody else.”

Asked if he had received any bids for his players, he replied: “No, not directly, not at all. There’s always talk all the time about everybody’s players, but nobody’s rung me up and said I want to do ‘X’.”

On free agent midfield duo Jack Collison and Darren Ambrose, both of who have been training with the squad, he said: “They are still here and they’ll play on Monday in the Under-21s game at Portman Road.”

On injured wingers Hunt (calf) and Stewart (jaw), he said: “Hunty’s been out and trained today, but he’s not fit to play yet. Cameron’s still working towards that initial six weeks. I hope they’ll both be available for after the international break. I’ve said to them both that has to be their target to be ready for those games.”

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