Striker Paul Taylor should follow the example of midfielder Anthony Wordsworth if he wants to win a place in the Town team, according to manager Mick McCarthy.
Taylor has been unable to establish himself in the Blues side and more recently the matchday 18 following his lengthy absence with a foot injury sustained shortly after he joined the club from Peterborough for £1.5 million in the summer of 2012.
The Liverpudlian missed Saturday’s trip to Blackburn as he was ill but travelled to Huddersfield for tonight’s game with the rest of the squad.
McCarthy says he’s told Taylor that Wordsworth’s recent return to the first-team picture illustrates what can happen.
"I had that discussion with Tayls, just to make sure that he keeps his own standards up,” he said. "Whatever they think about the manager, whether it’s me or somebody else, at any club, this is not a competition or an argument or a fight between me and players or players and me.
"Whatever it might be, the top or bottom of the leagues, it’s about them doing the best that they can for their careers, and me doing the best that I can as I see fit for the team.
"I said to him, did he foresee Woody coming in and playing those two games and playing as well as he did? The answer to that was that he didn’t. I said ‘Well, that shows you how football changes so quickly’.
"But you’ve got to keep standards up and why Woody got in was because he had. He trained well, he played well in the U21s, he got in and he did really well.”
McCarthy says players need to keep plugging away when they have setbacks, just like anyone else in any job.
He added: "He’s all right, he’s trained OK and he’s got to keep going, hasn’t he?
"You all get knockbacks in your jobs, what do you do? They don’t just pack-up and stop playing, they’ve got to keep going.
"Anybody that’s out of the team, the only way to get back in is to do their best. He trained [on Sunday] and he’ll be travelling.”
The likes of Taylor and Wordsworth have found it tough to break into what’s been a consistent first XI this season, stability which McCarthy believes has been beneficial.
"It’s been good for us,” he said. "They’re all capable of playing the games and keeping a settled side has been good.
"If you’ve got loads of players, which I don’t, you could be thinking about chopping and changing.
"But I don’t do it anyway, I’m loyal to players, I don’t think one bad game deserves them dropping out, particularly when they’ve been playing well over chunks of games, over weeks and months. I think it’s been good for us that it’s been a settled side.”
Might he look to move Taylor on in the close season? "I don’t know what we’ll be doing in the summer yet. We’ll have a look and see what we’ve got towards the end of the season.
"He’s still under contract and whatever the decision is I’m not going to tell you about any of them!”