CITY skipper Mark Fotheringham has recalled the agonising moment he realised a training injury would rule him out of last Sunday's derby at Portman Road.

Fotheringham picked up a painful neck injury during a training session at Colney and was forced to reluctantly rule himself out of the running for the game - and his disappointment was only intensified by City's 2-1 defeat at the hands of their arch-rivals.

He told CanariesWorld: "I went up for a defensive header in training and I think the way I connected with the ball and landed was wrong, so I basically got a shooting pain right up my shoulder blade leading into my neck and I couldn't get any movement from my neck to the left.

"I went up to see an osteopath with our physio Neil Reynolds and he manipulated it and made it a lot better but I just ran out of time before the game at Portman Road. I'm sure I'll be fit for the game against West Brom on Saturday.

"I was absolutely gutted. I knew straight away what I had done. I missed one week last season with a back injury, and it was the same thing, as soon as I did it I knew I was going to be struggling for the game.

"The pain was too much and I couldn't get any range in the movement. A game of that magnitude, if your not 100 percent it would show so I took the decision to withdraw myself from the squad.

"It was so frustrating. I travelled down with the squad and watched the game because I wanted to be part of it. I sat behind the dugout, which was obviously close quarters."

Fotheringham was forced to watch as the early promise delivered via a fine strike from Ched Evans was cancelled out by an Alex Pearce own goal and the winner from Danny Haynes.

Ipswich continued to create more chances and City were indebted to David Marshall for some excellent saves to keep the scoreline at 2-1. A poor performance after a run of good Canary displays was particularly disappointing, said Fotheringham:

"If I'm being perfectly honest it was a really poor performance and it could have been more than the scoreline showed but that's what makes it more frustrating.

"I'm with the lads day-in-day-out and I know how much quality we have in the team but we just never performed on the day, which was disappointing for the fans and us as well because we needed the three points massively. It was a great opportunity to go down there and beat a team who I think we are more than capable of taking on when we are at our best."

The result leaves City with work to do to secure their Championship status, with the visit of West Brom the first of three games left to play.

Fotheringham said he was aware of the situation and determined to graft for the results and points required: "We have to concentrate on our own job and we need to prepare 110 percent for West Brom."