Grant Leadbitter must play his natural game and not worry about the threat of a two-match ban, according to boss Roy Keane.

The Ipswich Town midfielder has collected nine yellow cards this season and one more would see him suspended for a couple of games.

He managed to avoid one in last week's home match against Bristol City.

Now he has to try and do the same again in this afternoon's Championship match at Blackpool (kick-off 3pm).

Asked whether the fear of a booking should be lurking in the back of Leadbitter's mind, Blues boss Keane said: “Absolutely not. That's crazy.

“He should play the game but make sure he doesn't get any more bookings for dissent.

“I don't mind him getting booked for tackles but he's had three for dissent, so it's his own fault.”

Keane said he has spoken to Leadbitter about keeping his thoughts to himself, rather than confronting the referee, but joked: “He's obviously not listening. He's learning from the master.

“You can get the odd one for dissent but he's had three.

“That's unacceptable and players get disciplined for dissent. It's in their contracts.

“They get fined and that's standard procedure at most clubs.

“Grant's got to be careful. You've got to know how much to say to the referee and then back away.

“But he's obviously gone over that line once or twice.

“I've seen the bookings and he's deserved every one of them.

“But he's young and learning. I'm not going to shoot him – yet.”

Asked whether he found it easy during his playing days to put the threat of suspensions out of his mind, Keane said: “Of course. It's easy.

“Yellow cards weren't my problem anyway – it was the red ones.”

Meanwhile, Keane added that his first-team regulars will hardly train between now and the end of the season, due to the volume of games.

“There won't be any training at our club for the next couple of months, for the boys involved involved in the first team,” he said.

“It'll just be play, recovery, play, recovery.

“We're playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday until the end of the season. Wednesdays will be for recovery, Thursdays will probably be a day off and then we might go through a few set-pieces on Fridays.

“This is where you're going to get injuries, in the next month or two, because of the demands on the players and it's going to be a tough ask, both physically and mentally.”

For a full report, reaction and pictures from Bloomfield Road, see Monday's Daily Gazette.