Ipswich Town manager Paul Hurst has confirmed that Luke Chambers will take the captain's armband for the 2018-19 season.
The 32-year-old captained the Blues during much of Mick McCarthy's tenure, taking over the role officially following the departure of Carlos Edwards in 2014, and will do so again under Hurst.
Although the new Ipswich boss has regularly stressed that no player can take their first-team spot for granted, he admitted that Chambers is almost guaranteed to start the Championship opener against Blackburn Rovers.
"Luke's captain, whenever he's in the team, though obviously if he's not he will still be a big voice around the place," Hurst told the Ipswich Star. "At the minute he's probably one of the players, touch wood, guaranteed to be in the starting line-up because he's done well and we haven't got too much competition at this moment in time.
"In the pre-season games where it's quiet and there aren't too many fans you can get a better sense of [his leadership] than you sometimes do when you are playing in front of 20,000 when a lot of those messages can get lost.
"He's a big presence at the football club and you need people like that – sometimes they are the most vocal and sometimes they are the quieter ones who do the work. Hopefully he's enjoying it, a new start and a new challenge for him as well."
Chambers has been with Ipswich since 2012, moving to Portman Road from Nottingham Forest, and has made upwards of 230 appearances for the East Anglians.
Giuseppe Labellarte
