IPSWICH boss Jim Magilton faces an anxious wait as three injured members of his senior squad were today undergoing scans.Magilton is keeping his fingers crossed that the trio of midfielder Gavin Williams, defender Fabian Wilnis and on-loan star Simon Walton will all be given the thumbs-up by the medical experts.

By Mel Henderson

IPSWICH boss Jim Magilton faces an anxious wait as three injured members of his senior squad were today undergoing scans.

Magilton is keeping his fingers crossed that the trio of midfielder Gavin Williams, defender Fabian Wilnis and on-loan star Simon Walton will all be given the thumbs-up by the medical experts.

Williams, who was withdrawn at half-time in Saturday's 2-2 draw at Birmingham, is by far the biggest doubt for the home clash with Sunderland in four days' time.

Magilton said: “We need to find out the full extent of Gavin's groin problem. He felt fine going into the game at St Andrew's but then he felt a sharp pain and couldn't continue.

“With the other two lads it's more of a precautionary measure. I am pretty confident they will both be OK and available for the Sunderland game, although we will have to wait and see what the scans reveal.

“I don't even want to think that all three will be ruled out. That would be a huge blow and I can't see it

coming to that.

“Fabian was going to play at Birmingham but then felt his thigh go in the warm-up, while Simon's problem is his hamstring. He also has a nasty gash just above his right ankle.”

With defender Alex Bruce already ruled out by suspension, Magilton will be hoping there is minimum disruption to his team for the visit of Sunderland.

But the Town boss fears 26-year-old Williams might have to sit out a couple of games in order to overcome his groin injury.

He said: “Gavin hasn't been able to train a lot between games and we might not be able to get him through to the international break next month, when he could have had almost a fortnight to rest up.”

Ipswich are unbeaten in their last five league games and victory on Saturday would virtually guarantee Magilton claiming the Championship manager of the month accolade.

Meanwhile, Magilton today confirmed that he is continuing to monitor former Town favourite Tommy Miller's situation at Sunderland.

An Ipswich scout saw the 27-year-old midfielder score his side's first goal in a 4-1 win over Doncaster in a reserve friendly at the Stadium of Light yesterday.

Magilton said: “There is always going to be speculation linking us with Tommy and, yes, we did have someone there. But he was there to have a look at all the players on show.

“Sunderland have a number of good players who are no longer regular choices and we were just one of several clubs who had scouts at the game.

“But Tommy is still a player who interests us. He is not in the first team at the moment and we will keep an eye on the situation. Something might still happen in January, if not sooner.”

Miller is in the final year of his contract with the Black Cats, having made a free transfer move to his boyhood favourites after netting 15 goals for Ipswich in the 2004-2005 season.

But since then he has been relegated from the Premiership and is now out in the cold, having been absent from the line-up for six games.

He is currently reluctant to move as his wife is expecting twins, but when the time is right he could face a choice between former club Ipswich and Southampton, where manager George Burley knows him well having shelled out £750,000 to bring him from Hartlepool to Portman Road in 2001.