Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy refuses to be drawn on the future of out-of-favour Paul Taylor

A superb man-of-the-match display in the 1-0 home win over Birmingham on March 1 raised hope that the 26-year-old could finally live up to his £1.5m price-tag at Portman Road.

However, the Liverpudlian – who was sidelined for virtually the entirety of his debut campaign in Suffolk – blew hot-and-cold at Middlesbrough the following week and has made just one substitute appearance since.

Asked why Taylor hasn’t featured of late, McCarthy said: “He’s had diarrhoea and sickness for three days. He reported to us that he was ill last Friday, so that’s why he wasn’t at Blackburn.

“Other than that he’s alright; he’s trained okay. He’s got to keep going though hasn’t he?

“Listen, how old is he? Twenty-three, twenty-four? (26). He’s still got 10 years of a career to play. You have to keep going because will get knock-backs. You don’t just pack up and stop playing, you have to keep going.

“For anybody who has been out of the team, the only way to get back in is to do their best. He trained yesterday and he’ll be travelling today (to Huddersfield).”

With Anthony Wordsworth having been brought in from the cold to make three starts out of the last four, McCarthy has told Taylor to use the midfielder as his inspiration.

“I had that discussion with Tayls. I said to him, did he see Woody coming in and playing those games and playing as well as he did? Well, the answer to that was, no, he didn’t. I said, well that tells you how football changes so quickly. You’ve got to keep your standards up.”

Asked if Taylor could potentially move on at the end of the season, the Blues boss replied: “I don’t know what I’ll be doing in the summer yet. He’s still under contract and whatever my decision is I’m not going to tell you (the media).”