Ipswich clarify Kalvin Phillips loan deal amid Man City recall talk

Ipswich have dismissed the suggestion that loan signing Kalvin Phillips could return to Manchester City following Rodri's season-ending injury.

England international Phillips joined Ipswich on a season-long loan last month and boss Kieran McKenna was unclear on Friday whether the deal included a recall clause and City having the option to cut short his spell in Suffolk. But an Ipswich spokesperson has subsequently confirmed there is no recall clause in Phillips' agreement and the 28-year-old midfielder will spend the season at Portman Road.

Asked at his press conference ahead of Sunday's Premier League home game against Aston Villa, McKenna told reporters of Phillips' situation: "I don't think there is (a recall clause), but I can't tell you 100 per cent. I know the plan from our side, from his side, from Man City's side is that he has a season with us and gets back to playing regularly.

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"It's about him helping our team and us helping him build up to a good place in his career. That's 100 per cent the plan."

Phillips missed Ipswich's draw at Southampton last weekend with a thigh problem. But the 31-times capped England midfielder is available for Villa's visit to Portman Road, as is Wales striker Nathan Broadhead who has yet to feature this term because of a hamstring injury.

McKenna said: "Kalvin has trained with the group today (Friday), so we'll make a judgement on how many minutes he'll be available for. Nathan has been training well for the last week, so we've almost got a fully fit squad."

Ipswich have yet to register a Premier League win since promotion but have had three successive draws against Fulham, Brighton and Southampton.

"Our goal is to be as competitive as we can be each week," said McKenna. "In that way you can say we're on track. We've been competitive for the large majority of most games and certainly in the last three games in terms of the result.

"We know we're not going to win 4-0 or 5-0 every week, so it's about finding a result and ways to compete and be a difficult team to play against."

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