Philogene set to resume full training

Kieran McKenna is hopeful winger Jaden Philogene will rejoin the squad in the near future as they look to close the gap on the Championship's top two.

Philogene has been out of action since mid-January because of a knee injury and will again be unavailable for Tuesday's trip to Stoke City.

"Hopefully he will start team training this week. He's working with the rest of the coaching staff now but not with the team and hopefully he will get back to that level at some point soon," McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"It'll be good to have Jaden back. You're always going to miss someone of Jaden's quality. We know how demanding the schedule is going to be and we're going to need lots of options and availability being really good to get the results we want."

Philogene has nine league goals this season, five more than team-mate Sindre Walle Egeli, but McKenna is delighted with the young Norwegian's knack of scoring at important moments, as he did in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Leicester City.

"They've all been crucial goals. First goal at Coventry, massive goal - set us on the way to the points, Blackburn gets us a point. He's had four goals and they've all been pivotal goals," McKenna said.

"There's very few 19-year-olds playing regular minutes in this division so it's a fantastic experience for him to be doing it.

"It's going to be up and down over the course of a season with a player so young, coming to England for the first time, but I know he'll be so much stronger for the season that he's had.

"We believe he'll have some more big moments before the end of the season."