Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy refuses to apologise for being loyal to certain players within his squad.

The Blues boss was quick to put Dean Gerken back in goal earlier this season, despite Scott Loach having produced a man-of-the-match display while the No.1 was injured.

And it was a scenario which was repeated last weekend, midfielder Cole Skuse going straight back into the starting XI following a two-game absence through injury and Anthony Wordsworth dropped after two impressive displays.

“I’m loyal to players,” said McCarthy, who has used just 27 players in the league this season.

“I spoke to Woody beforehand. I told him that I was putting Skusey back in because he’d played 30-odd games before his injury and been a top man. As I said to Woody, if you’d have been my top man I’d have been putting you back in too.

“Not having him on the bench was just because I wanted fresh legs on the bench. He’ll be back in the squad for Saturday. He might even get a game.”

The Blues are two points adrift of the Championship play-off places heading into their final seven games of the season, back-to-back away games against Blackburn (tomorrow) and Huddersfield (next Tuesday) next up.

“I’m not up and down with my opinions on people,” said McCarthy. “With the greatest respect to you guys (the media), somebody has a good game at the top level and suddenly everybody is saying they should be in the England side. It’s bonkers and I just get so annoyed with that thought process.

“We (managers) see them every day, we work with them every day and see what they do.

“I tend to hang my hat on people and if I do it tends to be for a good reason. That’s not being disrespectful to the ones who are left out, you just pick people, say ‘that’s who I want in my team’ and get a response from it.”