Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd has confirmed that Town midfielder Owen Garvan turned down a loan move to the U’s last month. The Irish midfielder is currently out of Blues manager Roy Keane’s plans.
Boothroyd said: "It's fair to say I did enquire about Owen and Ipswich were prepared to let him go out on loan.
"He elected to stay and fight for his place and that's fine. I've not got an issue with that.”
Prior to Town’s trip to Sheffield United last week, Keane said the 21-year-old will be given the chance to change his mind: "He’s out of my plans at this moment in time. He’s a talented boy and I’ve gone down the road with certain players, but like all the other players at the club Owen has the opportunity to impress me.
"The boy’s attitude has been fine, he’s been training hard and he’s played in the reserve games.
"He’s doing OK, but we gave him the option to go and get some games under his belt while he wasn’t in the first team and he declined that.
"But I’ve got no problem with that and he’ll no doubt play with the reserves on Wednesday and, if he does well, he might have a chance for the weekend. I’ve written off no player at the football club, we’re not in any position to be doing that.”
Boothroyd says he has no plans to continue his pursuit of Garvan.