Ipswich Town v Birmingham City: Latest team news ft Kieffer Moore and Alex Pritchard | OneFootball

Ipswich Town may have the chance to move back into the Championship's automatic promotion places on Saturday afternoon when they welcome Birmingham City to Portman Road.

With Leicester City and Leeds United both taking each other on on Friday night, the latter dropping points will hand Kieran McKenna's side the chance to leapfrog the Whites in the standings, who they are level on points with currently.

Town have lost just once at home in the league this season - that coming to Leeds back in August - so the trip to Suffolk represents a tough test for Birmingham, who have managed to climb up into the mid-table zone following back-to-back wins over Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.

And they will be looking to make it three on the spin for head coach Tony Mowbray, who has had to temporarily step aside due to an undisclosed medical issue which will keep him away from the club for at least the next month.

Following a pulsating 4-3 thriller against Rotherham United earlier in the week, Ipswich had a number of potential injury concerns heading into their latest contest.

One of those involved winger Jeremy Sarmiento, with the Brighton loanee coming off at half-time with what has since come out to be a bit of hamstring trouble.

McKenna has revealed though that a scan of the Ecuador international has come up clean, with the issue just being tightness and that he has a chance of being involved against the Blues.

Two more players who were withdrawn in the second half against the Millers were striker Kieffer Moore and defender Harry Clarke, who came off within five minutes of each other.

Moore was able to take part in training though following his knee knock, but Clarke is touch and go for Saturday after suffering a dead leg, which McKenna described as 'pretty severe'.

One individual who will continue to be missing however is Brandon Williams.

The Man United loanee has not been seen since the end of December, having returned to Old Trafford for a medical assessment - Williams has still not returned however according to McKenna, having suffered a setback in his recovery and he has not even taken back to the training pitch yet.

Birmingham have a couple of first-team players missing themselves, including January signing Alex Pritchard.

The ex-Sunderland midfielder made his debut earlier in the month against West Brom, but a calf injury picked up since has ruled the playmaker out, with interim boss Mark Venus - taking over for Mowbray until he is well enough to return - revealing that Pritchard will return to training next week.

City are also building George Hall back up to a return, having seen his season decimated by hamstring trouble.

The 19-year-old midfielder played just twice in August after recovering from muscle and ankle problems in pre-season, but then injured his hamstring and hasn't been seen for six months in the first-team.

Hall will continue to build himself up in the under-21's, according to Venus, but it should not be too long until the teenager pulls on the blue shirt once more.

One player who will be available in Suffolk this weekend is Dion Sanderson.

Birmingham's captain has missed the last four league fixtures because of an ankle injury, but Venus has confirmed that Sanderson is available after training for the last 10 days and coming through it unscathed.