Kieffer Moore's race against time to be fit for East Anglian derby

Town won both of their Easter fixtures to steal a march in the automatic promotion race in the Championship and head into Saturday's game top of the table on 87 points after 40 matches. 

Their victory over Southampton pushed them closer to a top-flight return, but they lost Moore in the first half with a back injury. 

Moore joined Ipswich on loan from Premier League side Bournemouth in January and the Welshman has scored six goals in 12 matches since re-joining the Suffolk outfit. 

His absence didn't prove costly on Monday, with goals from Nathan Broadhead and a late winner from Jeremy Sarmiento helping Kieran McKenna's side overturn a 2-1 deficit. 

Moore now faces a race against time to be fit for Saturday's derby, with McKenna hoping to provide a positive fitness update at his pre-match press conference later this week. 

“I haven’t had the medical report, to be honest,” McKenna told TWTD after Monday's win. “He got a firm hit on his back.

“I think it all locked up, so that isn’t great, so we’ll have to see how he is over the next few days. But I haven’t had a report yet.”

Ipswich are hoping to record their first victory at Carrow Road since February 2006 and end nearly 15 years of derby day hurt against the Canaries. 

Ipswich Town are looking for their first Carrow Road win since February 2006. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

Captain Sam Morsy is confident that Ipswich can overcome fitness issues to continue their fine run of Championship form in Norfolk on Saturday. 

“Two games in quick succession, there’s loads of knocks, there’s illness and whatever so there’ll be a day or two of rest for the game which again is going to be a really good game and a really good occasion,” Morsy said, looking ahead to their trip to Carrow Road.

“Our fans will obviously travel in numbers and we just really look forward to it. We will embrace it, we’ve worked hard to play these sort of fixtures so we’ll go and give it our all.”