Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna provides George Hirst injury update ahead of QPR visit

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna labelled George Hirst’s injury as ‘significant’ and ‘a big blow’ as the Tractor Boys await to hear how long the striker will be out for.

The 24-year-old hobbled off with a hamstring problem in the first half of Town’s top-of-the-table clash at home to Leicester City on Boxing Day and the Blues’ boss has provided an update on the extent of Hirst’s injury in his pre-QPR press conference.

“It’s a significant injury to his hamstring. He’s had some scans and he’ll be seeing a specialist to get further clarification on what sort of time scale we’re looking at,” said McKenna.

“It’s hard to give too clear of an indication (of how long Hirst will be out for), it’s not a short-term injury. I think we can say that clearly but beyond that we should be able to put a time scale on it by next week I think.

“He has a specialist appointment early next week and that will give clearer time scales.

“It’s a big blow. He’s been very, very important as to how we play, he’s developed a lot over the last 12 months and it’s not easy to step into those shoes.

“But, we have strikers here who have done well for us, who have been training well and have been preparing for opportunities when they come.”

Kayden Jackson was the man summoned from the bench to come on for Hirst on Boxing Day but he was later replaced by Freddie Ladapo, as either striker could lead the line for Town at Portman Road tomorrow against the Hoops (7.45pm).

Yesterday, it was announced that Dane Scarlett had been recalled by Tottenham Hotspur and, with only one game of 2023 remaining, McKenna will soon be able to bolster his attacking options when the January transfer window opens.

“Of course, we’re pretty close to a transfer window where we will try and add to the squad as well. We have some good solutions internally and it’s a window where all teams will look to improve their squads externally as well,” said the Town manager.

“There’s a few positions we would like to add in and the forward areas is one of them. Always in the second half of the season teams want to add goals or goalscorers.

“We managed to do that last January and we’d like to do that again in this window.

“Having said that, we’ve got goals in the building, we’re the top goalscorers in the league, we’ve shared goals around the pitch, we’ve scored goals from different phases of the game. That’s something we’ll look to do independent on who’s playing in the central striker role on that day.”