Szmodics to miss Ireland's playoff against Bulgaria after ankle surgery

INJURY: Ankle surgery for Sammie Szmodics has ruled the Ipswich Town attacker out of Ireland’s Uefa Nations League relegation/playoff against Bulgaria on March 20 and 23. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Ankle surgery for Sammie Szmodics has ruled the Ipswich Town attacker out of Ireland’s Uefa Nations League relegation/playoff against Bulgaria on March 20 and 23.

Szmodics featured on all of Ireland’s 10 games during 2024 after spurning an approach from Hungary to switch allegiance before he’d been capped. He earned his Premier League move to the newly-promoted Tractor Boys on account of claiming the Championship Golden Boot with 33 goals for Blackburn Rovers but the 29-year-old’s £11m move has been punctuated by injuries.

This latest setback is the most serious, sidelining him for the majority of Town’s run-in, a dogfight to avoid immediate relegation.

“Sam has gone for an ankle operation, unfortunately, so he's going to be out for an extended period of time,” said Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna on Friday.

“He originally suffered the injury in a tackle in the Fulham game, then had a recurrence of it in the Coventry game, then he had a recurrence of it after the Manchester United game last week.

“I don't know the exact timescale, but it's going to be a good number of weeks and if we see him again this season it will be in the last couple of fixtures.” 

Another Ipswich attacker Chiedozie Ogbene was already unavailable due to his Achilles problem, while Andrew Omomabidele and midfielder Jamie McGrath won’t feature either.

Whichever team emerges from the two-leg playoff, on Thursday week in Plovdiv and three days later at Lansdowne Road, will earn the right to compete in League B of the next, fifth series in late 2026.