Boss Mick McCarthy has stressed that the plan to send midfielder Anthony Wordsworth out on loan prior to last Thursday’s deadline was only to give the 24-year-old first-team football. A proposed move to League One Preston broke down, while the former Colchester man is also understood to have been interesting the MK Dons amongst others.
"I was prepared to let him go out so he could have a month of competitive games and he would have been back on December 12th,” McCarthy said. "So, he would have missed four games, but he would have been better for it.
"I wasn’t trying to get shot of him, I was trying to do me and him a favour - if he got five competitive games he’d be a lot better off when came back in December, rather than playing in the U21s on Tuesday, as he did.
"The message is always the same, it’s get in the team. They want me to put them in the team, they’ve got to put it in front of me every day, playing and training.”
The Blues boss says Wordsworth, who has made two starts and seven appearances for Town, scoring one goal, has been unlucky fitness-wise since moving to Portman Road from Colchester for £100,000 in January.
"He had a lot of injuries, Woody,” he said. "He fractured his spine, that put him back slightly. And I think he had another injury then. He really did get some nasty injuries, to be fair, and that just put him down the pecking order.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy says he had no problem with Gillingham manager Peter Taylor playing loanee Elliott Hewitt in central midfield, although he would have preferred the 19-year-old to operate in his more usual right-back position during his spell with the League One club.
Hewitt, whose time with the Gills has come to an early end due to a fractured ankle, was used as a holding midfielder — a role McCarthy says he’s not considered for the Wales U21 international — in a 4-5-1 formation as the Gills beat Stevenage 3-2 at the Priestfield Stadium last Tuesday.
Speaking prior to Hewitt being ruled out for a month, McCarthy said: "I spoke to Peter Taylor, I’d prefer him to be playing at right-back, but playing at that level in competitive football it’ll still be good for him.
"It’ll give him a different string to his bow, he can see different things. But, like I said, I’d prefer him playing his position, but they’ve taken him and I don’t say to [Taylor] he's got to play him at right-back as he might not play at all if he’s got somebody else.”