Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has confirmed that defender Axel Tuanzebe almost lost his thumb in a freak domestic accident. 

The Blues boss said that the 26-year-old missed the 4-1 defeat at West Ham with an ‘unfortunate hand injury’, with a national report subsequently revealing that he had badly cut his thumb when breaking a glass washing up. 

“It’s a household accident, very, very unfortunate and very, very serious. He was very close to losing his thumb,” said McKenna, speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Everton at Portman Road. 

“He’s had surgery to repair the tendons in the thumb that was damaged, I think the recovery is going pretty well, but it’s a long-term injury. As much as it sounds a pretty innocuous body part regards the game of football, it’s a pretty important body part in human anatomy. He needs to let it recover. 

“Of course it’s a loss and a miss. It shows how quickly things can change in football and in life. Thankfully he’s recovering well. We have to adapt and improve as a team. We look forward to having him back when he’s ready. 

SIGN-UP! Get five months of all our Town content for just £5 - or 40% off a whole year!

“The timescale is not definite. It could be a few months, maybe less if the recovery goes well. That’s something we’re still in dialogue with specialists about.” 

Town will also still be without midfield duo Jens Cajuste (knee) and Massimo Luongo this weekend.

“Jens is not fit yet, but will hopefully train with the group next week,” said the Blues boss. 

“Massimo picked up an injury in the Aston Villa game, so he’s also unavailable for this game and probably the next period of games. We also have some other issues that we’re assessing currently.” 

One of those players being assessed is Republic of Ireland defender Dara O’Shea after he came off late in last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat in Greece. 

“He had an issue in his back that is having to be assessed,” said McKenna. “We’re going to have to see how that goes over the next couple of days.” 

Providing an injury update on striker Ali Al-Hamadi, the Blues boss said: “Ali missed the international break (with Iraq). He had a further injection in his groin area.  

“It’s been a really complicated issue. Usually when you have an injury in that area it isn’t always necessarily one site – it's a small margin between what classifies as a hernia, an adductor, a hip flexor, a deep abdominal, hip joint...  

“He’s doing okay, has been back training the last couple of days. We hope now that he can have a really clear run at it now having not been fully free of pain for a while. He’s available for tomorrow if we need him.”