Kieran McKenna has been considering his striker options for the home game against Newcastle United. Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna claims he has ‘four or five’ options to replace suspended scorer Liam Delap against Newcastle tomorrow. Delap was booked in the tunnel following Town’s last-minute triumph against Wolves last Saturday, his fifth yellow of the season, and will serve a one-game suspension this weekend. “I spoke with the referee after the press conference, and he stated there is a regulation that if there is a melee on the pitch, someone from both teams must be booked. Someone else will have to look into that to see if it’s real or not, but I’ll take him at face value on that,” explained McKenna.”I’ve reviewed the incident; I was present at the time, and I don’t see anything unusual from our players.” But Liam was booked inside that timeframe. “We’re very disappointed to lose him for tomorrow. I believe he has been in excellent form. I know he hasn’t scored in a few games, but I believe he’s contributing significantly to the team’s success. “With George (Hirst) out, we don’t want to lose both of them, so this weekend presents a fresh problem. It’s a terrific time for others to stand forward and offer their abilities to the team. challenge for for us to adapt to the strength of whoever comes into the team.”

With Hirst still sidelined due to a knee injury, McKenna’s sole available striker is Ali Al-Hamadi. The Iraq international arrived from League Two club AFC Wimbledon in January, but after groin surgery in May, he has only made seven Premier League appearances. “We’ve probably got four or five people in the building who have played as a striker,” McKenna admitted. “The most apparent ones are Sammie Szmodics, Conor Chaplin, and Nathan Broadhead, but Wes Burns has also played as a striker. We have quite a few alternatives.

“Ali is obviously the most natural forward that we have in terms of the profile of striker we usually play with, but we also know he’s short of match minutes for quite a long period. There are other people who can fill the role in slightly different ways.

“If you look at last week, Omari (Hutchinson) was in central positions and almost centre forward positions at times.

“We have different qualities within the squad. We know we’re going to need different people to step up over the 90+ minutes. It’s a sport now, especially at Premier League level, where it’s genuinely not just about the team that starts being any more important than the team that finishes.

“We’ve got a team in mind to start the the game and we’ve got a team in mind to finish the game. You try and pick a balance of qualities. We’ve looked at that over the last few days.”

McKenna confirmed that Szmodics has been training all week having missed last weekend’s game through illness.

On Hirst’s recovery, he said: “He’s another few weeks at least. We don’t expect to see him over the Christmas fixtures. We’ll see him in the New Year.”

On injured right-back Axel Tuanzebe (hamstring), he said: “A little bit longer, but along similar lines. He’s certainly not going to be available for the next couple of weeks. If everything goes perfectly well from here then it’s possible we could see him at some point in January.”

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