Why Ali Al-Hamadi missed Ipswich Town v Southampton - Chuba Akpom situation also mentioned | OneFootball

The Ipswich forward was surprisingly not involved in Sunday's match against the Saints.

Kieran McKenna has explained why Ali Al-Hamadi wasn't involved in their Sunday draw against Southampton following links with a move away from Portman Road.

Al-Hamadi only featured for around a dozen minutes in the Tractor Boys' opening match of the season against Birmingham City. But, for Town's competitive return to their home ground, the Iraq international was nowhere to be found.

His absence from the matchday squad against Southampton came amid reported interest from other EFL clubs in the 23-year-old. According to TEAMtalk, Ipswich are willing to let the striker leave the club this summer, with Luton Town, Cardiff City and Charlton Athletic all touted as potential destinations for the £1 million signing.

Ali Al-Hamadi absence explained amid transfer links

McKenna's non-inclusion of the centre-forward in his team to face Will Still Saints at the weekend raised a few eyebrows. The Northern Irish boss has, however, cleared up that Al-Hamadi's absence was not transfer-related.

"Ali picked up an injury on Thursday and wasn't available," the 39-year-old said, via the East Anglia Daily Times. "That leaves us really, really short in that area.

"[It's his] calf. It's not very short-term, but hopefully not long-term either. It's probably going to be a few weeks."

George Hirst was McKenna's only out-and-out first-team number nine on Sunday. Recent signing Chuba Akpom also wasn't involved due to a fitness issue. The hope from the manager is that the Ajax loanee will be involved soon.

"He trained separately at the early part of the week but he had some muscle tightness and soreness after we tried to get him up to speed, so we've had to slow it down a little bit," McKenna revealed.

"Hopefully it won't be too much longer because it would be really important to have him with a group as soon as possible given we're shorter in the midfield and forward positions than we want to be, not just in terms of numbers but also just the readiness of those players getting up to full speed and full fitness.

"Hopefully he'll get some more training under his belt this week and be available for a few minutes soon."

A new striker is even more of a must than it already was for Ipswich

Ipswich are attempting to recruit more players up front. Como attacker Ivan Azon was on his way to sign for the club on a loan deal from the Italian side, but McKenna revealed after his side's 1-1 result that Ipswich wouldn't be pursuing the move.

With Al-Hamadi unlikely to be fit for the next few games and Akpom making his way back to full strength, it's going to put a lot of stress on Hirst to lead the line, almost at all times, until Town find someone else to carry the load.