McKenna explains why captain Sam Morsy was benched for the Brighton defeat

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna explained his thinking behind dropping captain Sam Morsy for yesterday’s 2-0 home defeat to Brighton.

It was the first time in his three and a half years at the club that Morsy had not been selected for a league match.

The Blues captain had started 137 of the previous 153 games across League One, the Championship and the Premier League. The 16 times his name was not on the team list were down to suspension (13) and injury (3).

Jens Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips were the starting midfield pair against the Seagulls, with Dara O’Shea taking the captain’s armband. Morsy replaced Cajuste with 20 minutes remaining.

“Samy is very important for us, it’s to have a strong season, but Kalvin has also come in good form,” McKenna said.

“The turnaround from tonight to Sunday (in the home game against Manchester City) I think is the quickest we’ve had all season and we know the level of the opposition we play on Sunday.

“Obviously Kalvin is not available for some minutes on Sunday (against his parent club), he is coming into good shape so we thought it was the right thing tonight to use him for good minutes tonight.

“And I think we’re going to need Samy for big minutes and hopefully a big performance on Sunday.”