Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy says Josh Emmanuel may be sent out on loan again next season.

After making six senior starts for the Blues in 2015/16, then a further 13 in 2016/17, the athletic homegrown right-back was lent to League One side Rotherham United for the entirety of this campaign in order to round off some raw edges.

The 20-year-old was a bit-part player for the Millers in the opening half of the campaign, in part due to injuries, but him nailing down a starting spot in early December has coincided with a remarkable surge up the table for the South Yorkshire club.

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Paul Warne’s men have won 12 of their last 17 games to move up into fourth spot with crunch games against promotion rivals Peterborough, Charlton, Wigan and Plymouth still to come.

“Great, fantastic for him,” said McCarthy. “There are a lot of people who have watched him and we’ll take the view on him as to whether he’s going to come back and play.

“If he’s not going to come back and play, then he might have to stay out again or do something else. He’s got to come and get back in the team. But he’s done well, he’s had a good season.”

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Jordan Spence and Dominic Iorfa have shared the right-back duties for Town this season, with loan player Iorfa facing an uncertain future at parent club Wolves.

Emmanuel is contracted to the Blues until the summer of 2019 with the club having an option to keep him for a further year.

“I’m going to do what all the managers do to me,” said McCarthy. “We’ll bring him back, we’ll have a look at him, bring him into pre-season and then we’ll gauge from there. That’s exactly what we’ll do.”

Emmanuel started every game of a 14-match unbeaten run for Rotherham, but was then dropped after a 1-0 home loss to Rochdale. After sitting out a 3-2 defeat at MK Dons he returned to the team for a 3-0 win at Northampton last weekend.

Warne explained: “Josh had played about 15 games on the spin. He’s 20 years old. I watched some clips back with him and honestly believed he needed to come out of the team just so he can reset himself and go again for the rest of the season.”

Captain Richard Woods said: “Josh is young but he’s learning quickly and, now he’s got a run of games, he’s doing very well.”