Roy Keane says if Town bring in any players in the January transfer window, it's more likely to be on loan.

The Blues' boss is wary of having too many players at his disposal and with David Norris close to a return from injury and Kevin Lisbie set to return to Portman Road in January from his loan at Colchester, his options will be increased further. 

"David should be available in January and Kevin will be coming back to this Club then as well so that might be it for us," Roy told the Club website.

"We might look at getting a loan or two in to cover the areas we need to fill but you don't want too many players left in the background.

"We have a reasonable size squad and we've got some good players here like Colin Healy and Liam Trotter who have not played recently and they should be playing week in, week out.

"If I bring in players then I have to leave others out. That's why I'm happy if some of my players want to go out on loan.

"Pim [Balkestein] is at Brentford and everyone wins in that. Brentford get a good player, Pim gets games and we keep him fit. He's training with us still and we keep an eye on his progress.

"It's the same with any loan player. We let Kevin go to Colchester and he is scoring goals so when he comes back to us in January, he'll be match sharp.

"A week is a long time in football and when you are not playing games, you can lose that sharpness very quickly.

"I'm not one of these managers that has to keep seven players as cover in case we get an injury. Footballers should be playing football and going out on loan should be seen as a positive thing. If I think a player can benefit from going on loan I'm happy to gamble and let them go."