Ipswich Town head coach Paul Hurst has told the East Anglian Daily Times that Cole Skuse will be fit enough to play in Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship match against Blackburn Rovers but Joe Garner has been ruled out.
It’s a whole new era for Ipswich as Paul Hurst takes control of his first game on Saturday. He replaced Mick McCarthy as head coach following his resignation before the end of the last season. And to make sure he has the fans on side, he will want to get a win on the opening day against Blackburn. They’ll also be some personal revenge for Hurst as Blackburn were the team that stopped his previous team Shrewsbury Town from getting automatically promoted from Sky Bet League One.
On the injury front, Hurst has got some mixed news. It is a boost to the team that Skuse will be able to play but the news that Garner is not available is a huge blow, especially if fellow striker Martyn Waghorn ends up leaving before Saturday.
Confirming the news, Hurst said: “He’s (Skuse) fine, he’s trained all week and he goes about his business extremely well,”
“I think if it was up to him he would have liked to have been part of the game last weekend but I didn’t want to take any risks with him, so he’s fully fit and available.”
“I want as many players as possible fit and available and if that means upsetting one or two because they’re not in the starting line-up or not even in the squad, I’d rather have that headache than be scratching around trying to find out who is fit and maybe contemplating putting (assistant manager) Chris Doig on the bench or something like that!”
“It’s a difficult one with Joe,”
“I’m not a physio or anything like that but I don’t think he’s too bad, in all honesty.”
“But he’s not really been out on the training ground so he’s not available to us. Hopefully that will not be the case for too long.”
