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Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna admits his squad is short on numbers heading into next weekend’s Premier League opener against Liverpool at Portman Road.

Key attacking duo Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst have both picked up injuries in pre-season, while an attempt to sign Blackburn talisman Sammie Szmodics has stalled.

“We’re short on numbers going into the season there’s no doubt about that,” who had 18 contracted senior outfield players available for this afternoon’s 1-0 friendly win against Nice.

“In an ideal world we would want to have 22/23 senior outfielders 100% fit and raring to go, but we don’t live in an ideal world.

“There’s been lots of challenges throughout pre-season and there’s going to be lots of challenges right through the season.

“We’ve got a group of players who have come through a really solid pre-season, we’re getting numbers back rather than losing numbers, so we’re in a stronger position than we were a week ago.

Yeah, we’d like to be deeper in strength, but it’s about the players who are fit and who have earned the right to pull the shirt on against Liverpool next week. That’s where so much of my focus will be once we get into next week. Hopefully everyone is supporting those players and coming together as a club for a wonderful occasion.”

 

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Asked if any new additions were close, the Blues boss replied: “I don’t think there’s anything imminent. The club are working really hard, I’m working really hard to make additions to the squad. We would like to have been a couple of additions further along by now, but we are where we are and it’s a challenging market.

“There’s a balance to be found between bringing in players who can help us as quickly as possible but also getting in the right players who can help us over the course of the next 10 months months, not just the next 10 days. It’s important that we continue to make decisions that are right for the bigger picture and for the years ahead.”

Town’s pursuit of Blackburn talisman Sammie Szmodics has been played out in the public domain. The Republic of Ireland international came on and scored in Rovers’ opening Championship win against Derby last night.

“There’s nothing to say on that,” said McKenna. “I’ll never speak about any individual from another club.”