Boss Mick McCarthy is delighted with 18-year-old Teddy Bishop’s impact since he came into the side at Derby, but won’t overplay the midfielder during his first season in the senior side.
The Town manager says he weighed-up whether to leave the academy product out of Tuesday’s victory over Brighton, the game having come so soon after the home win against Millwall.
"I considered taking him out having played on Saturday, he’s never played at that intensity before, certainly not on a Saturday and then a Tuesday,” he said.
"I just decided against it and thought that if he starts to struggle I’d take him off. And to be fair he didn’t up until when I took him off in the 72nd minute.
"They were just starting to get through the middle of us, I could see he was tiring and I thought I’d put Luke Hyam on which toughened us up a little bit.
"And also by toughening us up in the middle it gave Alex Henshall a little bit more freedom.”
He added: "I’m delighted with his impact so far. I picked him and re-picked him and picked him again, so it’s clear I’m pleased with what he’s doing.
"He’s a very good player but he’s not going to play 40-odd games for us his season, no matter how good he is. He’s not going to be doing that, I don’t want him to be getting injured.
"I’m not going to sit here and mark out which games we’re going to play him in but it’s going to be tough.
"We’ve got these games coming up and then we’ve got a two-week break, so then we all get a chance to have a rest.”
In addition to Bishop's emergence, McCarthy has a number of other new options in midfield: "Hunty’s fit, Darren Ambrose has joined us. It’s great. It’s nice to have some competition.”