Boss Mick McCarthy says Frank Nouble, Anthony Wordsworth and Paul Taylor won’t come into consideration for selection if they return to the Blues at the end of their loan spells on January 4th. Nouble is with League One Coventry, while Wordsworth and Taylor are with Championship Rotherham United.
McCarthy says there has been no word from their loan clubs but says the Sky Blues have given him the impression that they want to keep Nouble.
"I let him play in the FA Cup for them with a view that they liked him and would take him on for longer, but we’ll see," he said.
"I thought if they’d got no interest at all in taking him then I wouldn’t have let him play in the FA Cup. They might have been telling me porkie pies but I doubt it. I think he’s done all right, Frank.
"Woody and Paul Taylor, I don’t know. They started off playing for Rotherham and then they made changes and they’re not playing, so I don’t know. But their futures are elsewhere, the three of them, not here.
"They will be transferred, even if they come back they won’t be playing, they’ll go somewhere else.”
The Blues are already in talks with League One Port Vale regarding defender Freddie Veseli, who is also not in McCarthy’s plans.
Regarding Jack Marriott, who like Nouble, Wordsworth, Taylor and Veseli, is out of contract at the end of the season, McCarthy says he doesn’t know whether he’ll remain with Vanarama Conference side Woking beyond the end of his loan spell, also on January 4th.
"Jack hadn’t been playing regularly at Woking, he’s not had the same degree of success in terms of scoring goals,” McCarthy added.
"He needs to get that, he needs to play somewhere regularly and get some goals before he even thinks about getting in my team.”
Marriott, 20, has scored three goals in 12 starts and five sub appearances for the Cards this season, compared with 13 goals in 23 starts and one sub appearance during two spells last term.