Kieran McKenna has confirmed that George Hirst and Wes Burns will be unavailable for Ipswich Town’s next two games, but hopes that they can both feature in the last week of the season.

Hirst suffered a serious hamstring game in the early stages of the 1-1 draw at home to Leicester City on Boxing Day and has been sidelined ever since, while Burns suffered a similar yet less severe injury in the 6-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday in mid-March.

McKenna has remained optimistic that they still have a part to play before the end of the campaign, especially considering that there’s a two-week break before the final week of the season. However, he stated that they won’t be back in time to face Watford and Middlesbrough this week.

“The last three games are a time block of less than seven days,” the manager explained. “They won’t be available for the next two games.

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“After that, nothing is guaranteed but nothing is impossible.

“They’re both working on the grass now and we’ll continue to monitor them.

“We have a two-week break after the Middlesbrough game and I’m sure we’ll have a much better guide then in terms of what games they’re available for.”

There have been numerous question marks over Burns’ injury in recent weeks, with the club waiting on different scans to get a better picture of his recovery timeframe.

McKenna opted against revealing the specific details surrounding the damage, but revealed that the winger is making ‘good progress’ at the training ground.

“It was a hamstring strain,” he said. “I won’t go into the grades and the letters that get attached to these things, but it was a proper hamstring pull.

“There was no surgery required and he’s recovering well. The latest scans have looked better.

“He’s still got a long way to go but he’s making good progress.”

Overall, despite the absentees, McKenna is more than happy with the squad at his disposal for the rest of the promotion run-in, stressing that they'll need to use everyone to overcome the final challenges of a gruelling campaign.

"We're missing a couple of important players for us," he admitted. "When you get to the last stages of the season, the ideal scenario is that you have all your best and important players available.

"That's not always the case, and it's not the case for us at the moment. We still have good numbers and good options, and all the players are fighting for the cause, even those who have different little issues or are generally managing to make themselves available for the games and to put themselves up there. That's fantastic.

"I think we've shown, even in the last few weeks, even with the players we've had missing, that we can still have competitive teams to start and players coming off the bench making a good impact.

"We're certainly going to need that on Wednesday and we're certainly going to need that with the quick turnaround on Saturday as well."