Freddie Sears admits he could be forced to consider his Portman Road future in the close season if his frustration at not playing regularly continues through to the end of the current campaign.
Sears said: "Who knows what will happen? I’m 28 and I want to play games. I’m not happy sitting around doing nothing and I feel I’ve got a lot to give, whether it’s going to be here or somewhere else.
"I’m only thinking about our last 11 games of the season and we’ll see what happens from there.
"I think everyone considers it when they’re not playing or not as regularly as they would like. We all want to be in the team.
"I love it here, I love the team and the place, and the manager and TC are brilliant.
"But it’s all about playing games and I’m not the type to be happy sitting around, picking up the money for doing nothing.
"I want to be playing, scoring and achieving stuff. It’s a decision I’ll have to make and we’ll see what happens.
"I’m not saying that I’m going to be leaving — that’s not the case. But we all think about our future and there will be some other boys also thinking about what they’re going to do.
"I’ve still got next year left on my contract here and I’m happy here, so let’s wait and see.”
Sears has yet to score this season in 11 first team starts and a further 19 substitute appearances, the latest of which came on Tuesday when he was an early replacement for the injured Muzzy Carayol in Town’s 2-1 defeat of Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
He added: "You’re always disappointed when you don’t start a game because all you want to do is play — every game if possible.
"But the manager picks the team and as we saw the week before, when we played Cardiff at home, there were a lot of changes.
"You’ve always got to be ready and if you don’t play in one game you might play in the next.
"It worked out pretty well in the end for me because I came on quite early at Hillsborough and it went well. I thought I played well.
"Obviously, I’m more comfortable down the middle, running in behind and playing on the last defender, so I was happy to be back up top.
"Muzzy did brilliantly for us at Preston and Bersant, Garns and Waggy have all been in the team, while I came on the other night.
"We’re definitely a threat going forward and more solid at the back. Hopefully I’ll start on Saturday against Sheffield United but that’s down to the gaffer.
"He may decide to change things because we’re playing three games in a week but I’ll be ready whatever he decides.”
Sears believes Town must cash in against the Blades, and Hull at home on Tuesday, if they are going to mount a late bid to close the current seven-point gap between them and the play-off places.
The 28-year-old Londoner said: "If we want to achieve anything I think we need a couple of wins or at least four points.
"I don’t think we can afford to lose either of them and even if we do win two it’s still a tough ask.
"There are a lot of good teams up there and no one is sitting around at the minute thinking we are going to make the play-offs because it’s still a long way off.
"But if we win our two games going into the game at Bristol City on Saturday week, who knows?
"I think Saturday’s game is massive. Both teams are pushing for the play-offs and if we can beat them and win again on Tuesday we could be just three or four points away.”
While Town were out of action last weekend, due to the postponement of their scheduled home fixture against Hull, Sears revealed that the snow and ice did not unduly disrupt the squad’s preparations.
He added: "It was quite a strange week. People were snowed in and we were reporting for training at different times. We still had a lot to do and we were playing cricket in the dome on Thursday and tennis on Friday.
"It was certainly different but it has obviously worked. We also had a full game on Saturday at Portman Road and the rest took care of itself. We got a great win the other night and we might be playing tennis and cricket a bit more now.”
Meanwhile, Sears has acknowledged the emergence of new striking talent at Portman Road, adding: "I’ve played one or two games for the U23s and Ben Morris is a good, young talent, plus there’s Aaron [Drinan] who’s come over from Ireland.
"You can see the improvement in them since they’ve been training with the senior lads day in, day out.
"I think a lot of people don’t realise how big the step-up is from the U23 football to first team level. It takes time but I’m sure, if there’s nothing to play for towards the end of the season, the gaffer will give them an opportunity and I hope they’ll be ready.”