Ipswich Town and Manchester United to make Brandon Williams call as Kieran McKenna provides Leif Davis, Harry Clarke and Janoi Donacien updates

Kieran McKenna stated that Ipswich Town will make a ‘judgement call’ with Manchester United on what is best for Brandon Williams’ future for the second half of the season.

The on-loan left-back from the Red Devils last played for the Tractor Boys against QPR on December 29 and has since been out through illness.

McKenna today revealed, in his pre-match press conference, that the 23-year-old returned to his parent club in the week to be assessed by the Manchester United medical team.

“Brandon’s in Manchester at the moment, he’s gone back to Manchester United. Of course he’s has a period of injuries, originally, and more recently illness. He spent this week back there getting assessed by their medical team and won’t be with us for tomorrow,” said the Town boss.

“After that, it will have to be a conversation and, hopefully, he’s fit and available, can come back, and we can get back the Brandon Williams that we had through October and November.”

McKenna stated the full-back had suffered ‘a few contact knocks’ and a ‘soft-tissue injury’ alongside his illness but said it would be the Blues’ ‘desire’ to keep hold of Williams.

“I thought we saw little bits of what he can offer towards his best in the autumn time, but of course we haven’t had that for a period of time now,” said McKenna.

“We’ll have to make the judgement call alongside his parent club on what can be best for the second half of the year.”

Meanwhile, fellow full-backs Leif Davis (calf strain) and Harry Clarke (achilles) have both returned to the grass today.

Davis’ last action came in the Boxing Day draw to Leicester City and Clarke missed the weekend’s trip to AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup.

“Leif and Harry Clarke were both on the grass today, which is a positive. We’ll have to make decisions towards Saturday, seeing how they respond and whether they’ll be available for minutes or not,” said McKenna.

“Both of them are doing much better and both of them were out there today.”

Elsewhere, Janoi Donacien is still out with a groin injury and McKenna labelled the absence of the 30-year-old as a ‘big loss’.

“On the pitch, he’s got really good attributes for us and around the group as well. He’s got an ongoing groin issue, he’s currently in the middle of another bout of injections that will hopefully help it,” said the Town boss.

“He’s got the last of those next week and then we’ll have another attempt to return to training after that.”