Mick McCarthy has praised the attitude of defender Darren Ward as he prepares to travel with the squad to Ipswich.

Darren was one of the players made available for transfer in the summer, but the loss of Jody Craddock to injury has left him, Richard Stearman and Neill Collins as the club's three senior central defenders.

Mick has already stated he is looking for new blood, but at the same time is pleased with the defensive options at his disposal and would have no qualms about using Darren if required.

"I'm happy with the squad we've got," said Mick.

"I know we've lost Jody but we've got one back in Darren who was on the list and looked like going out of the door.

"But to be fair to him, he's trained particularly well and has also done well in the games we've arranged for our players not in the first team.

"He has a desire to stay here and get in the side which is a nice position for me to have because he's a great lad.

"He hasn't done anything wrong, but I wanted to change it around. But if that's not the case then I know I've got someone who can play in the team.

"We had 19 clean sheets last season and he was involved in 11 of them, so we know he can play."

On the ongoing search for a new recruit Mick added:  "We're still looking.

"There are two or three we're looking at and we've been looking all over the place."