Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy will be without midfield trio Cole Skuse, Teddy Bishop and Jay Tabb for Wednesday night’s FA Cup third round replay with Southampton at Portman Road (7.55pm ko, live on BBC One) after a virus swept through the camp.

The Blues boss – who made six changes to his team for the first match against Southampton, a 1-1 draw at St Mary’s – says he will field a similar side in front of a full house in midweek.

“No, they’re not all fit and well,” said McCarthy,” at today’s pre-match press conference. “Skusey (who missed Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Derby through illness) came in this morning and was sent home again.

“Tabby also had to come off because of the effects of it – I sent him home as well this morning; Teddy Bishop as well. There’s a virus going around the place that is laying one or two of them low.

“I’m actually quite pleased because it knocked me low for about a week and I thought I was getting soft! It’s made me realise I’m not as soft as I thought I was when younger, fitter people have been affected.

“Of course, I’m not really that happy that they are laid up because they can’t play. It’s very unlikely that they’ll be involved, but I think the other 14 are okay!

“We seem to have a load of competition for places there (in midfield) – and yet it’s there that we’ve had the majority of our problems, whether it be through injury or illness.”

With Dean Gerken, Jonathan Parr, Luke Hyam, Darren Ambrose, Stephen Hunt and Kevin Bru all having come into the team for the first match against Southampton, McCarthy added: “If you saw the team that we played at Southampton it will be similar to that. We made five or six changes and we competed very well.

“I am operating with probably 17/18 fit players. We’ve got Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday, have some big games coming up, so it’s probably right that I change my players around.”

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