Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says he may have to continue to tread carefully with centre-back Axel Tuanzebe.

The 26-year-old joined the Blues as a free agent on September 8 having been released by Manchester United following a stop-start few years affected by a back injury.

He made only his second league start for the club on Saturday, impressing during a 3-1 home win over Millwall. 

Asked if a player with Champions League experience was ready to go again in tomorrow's Championship home clash with Coventry City, McKenna said: "The other night was another good step forwards for him. There's been progression in every game he's had on the pitch.

"There are still lots of areas for him to improve and I think that's exciting.

"He's been excellent in terms of his way around the building. He's very mature for his age, very focused, is a good professional and has been training really well.

"We always planned and agreed that it would be an easy build-in from a games point of view. Beyond that there's a process to understanding how we play and what his role would look like on and off the ball - a lot of work has gone into that."

With Ipswich set to be without Australian international centre-back Cameron Burgess in January/February due to the Asian Cup, McKenna continued: "As much as he (Tuanzebe) has had some top, top experiences in his career, he also hasn't had a lot of games in quite a few years.

"We've tried to manage him well, he's up to a good level now and had a couple of starts. We'll have to make a decision now as to whether Saturday is too soon for him to go again.

"We'll make decisions with him with the medium and long-term in our minds, not just the short-term."

Meanwhile, McKenna confirmed that Manchester United loanee Brandon Williams is available for selection again after missing Saturday's game with a 'knock'.

The Blues boss also revealed that full-back Janoi Donacien is close to being available for selection again following a recent injury set-back.

"I don’t know if that this documented, but he came off against Fulham after 60 minutes with a groin injury and he’s been unavailable since then really," explained the Blues boss.

“It was a follow-on from the niggling little groin, pelvis issues that he’s had since pre-season.

“He’s just started training again on Wednesday. He’s not really available for match action yet, but we’ll build him up next week and he could be an important player for us in this busy period.”XEL