Ipswich boss Roy Keane handed Connor Wickham dilemma

Keane's Ipswich have failed to score in their last two outings

Roy Keane admits it would be tough to leave youngster Connor Wickham out of his Ipswich Town side for this weekend's visit of Cardiff City.

The striker, 17, has made two substitute appearances since returning from a six-week lay-off and could be set for his first start of the season.

Keane told BBC Radio Suffolk: "He's given himself a chance.

"Against Portsmouth he came on and affected the game, Connor's certainly given me a headache."

He added: "I know sometimes it's about holding players back and I probably contradict myself most weeks.

"But other times the players say: 'You've got to let me go, I'm doing the business in training and forget about the reserves, I've had a cameo in the first team'."

Wickham's potential return will be a boost to Town after Tuesday's 3-0 home defeat by QPR, but the prospect of including a Premier League loan player in the weekend's squad seems to have vanished.

Keane had stated he wanted to bring in a new name by the end of the week but admits it looks unlikely to happen as quickly as he had hoped.

I've made it clear to the club that there are certain players whose contracts are up who I think are vital to the football club. Again, I've stood back from that and let the club deal with that

Ipswich Town boss Roy Keane

"No news I'm afraid. Please go and ask other people than me," he laughed.

"It certainly takes time and we appreciate that, I sound like an old record player but we were hoping to have the player done this week but it's not.

"I've obviously passed that on to the chief executive and my job is to prepare the players we have available and not the ones we might be interested in."

The Town board have been given further instructions by the club's manager to secure the future of a number current players.

The long list of individuals who are out of contract in the summer includes the likes of David Norris, Gareth McAuley and Damien Delaney.

"I've made it clear to the club that there are certain players whose contracts are up who I think are vital to the football club," he added.

"Again, I've stood back from that and let the club deal with that. Hopefully there will be talks over the next few weeks and we can get certain players tied up."