Murray waits while Elokobi has op

Murray has now finished a course of injections to reduce swelling in his left knee, after suffering a reaction in his rehabilitation at the start of July to his cruciate ligament injury some 14 months ago.

Now the 27-year-old has to wait for the knee to settle down before returning to full training.

Manager Mick McCarthy said: "He's finished his course of injections, but he's having to wait until he can train. He to have more injections and hasn't trained since. Until it's all settled down and he's back training, we won't know how he is.

"But I'm sure once that's happened, he'll be fine."

McCarthy stressed there was no need for Murray to be rushed.

He said: "Because we've got Carl Ikeme too and a minimum of 46 games is a long season, I can take it nice and easy with Matt without pushing him."

Elokobi prepares to go under the knife next Tuesday, to discover the extent of ligament damage to his right knee, after being seriously injured at Ipswich 12 days ago.

The left-back saw a surgeon last Friday but the damage could not be ascertained because of the swelling.

The 22-year-old is walking without crutches, has no discomfort and is hopeful of a full recovery.

He said: "I see the surgeon on Tuesday for an operation when we'll find out what's wrong. But the knee has settled down a lot and I can walk around fine."

Captain Jody Craddock continues to make progress from his broken foot. The central defender hopes to ditch the special boot to aid his recovery and believes he will be back sooner than the estimated 12 weeks.

He said: "He'll be fine. I saw him yesterday but it will take as long as it takes. There's nothing we can do to make that any better.

"If you set 12 weeks as the benchmark and it's 10, then he'll be thrilled. If you say 10 and it's 12, then players are always down."