Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy reluctantly admits that he will have to treat rising star Teddy Bishop with kid gloves again this season.

The 19-year-old earned plenty of plaudits during his breakthrough campaign at senior level, making 23 starts and 10 substitute appearances in the Championship.

He has a history of injury problems as an academy player though and only completed one full match for the first team in 2014/15 as McCarthy tried to make the teenager’s transition to the men’s game as smooth as possible.

The hope was that the talented midfielder, who has worked hard in the gym over the summer, would be able to kick on this coming season.

However, McCarthy suggested, following Tuesday night’s 3-2 pre-season defeat at Colchester, that he will still have to tread carefully.

“He’s struggling a bit with his shins still, which he was at the end of last season,” revealed the Blues boss.

“He’s having to look after them and train when he can and that’s not enough at this stage of the season.

“I think you saw that in the second half (at Colchester) tonight – he didn’t really get about.”

Speaking earlier this summer, Bishop said: “We had a summer programme and I’ve been trying to beef up a bit because that will help my game a lot. I’m still trying to get stronger and hopefully that will show.

“Hopefully I can start playing 90 minutes regularly now. It was a big step up going from youth team football to first team football, the intensity is so different, and the whole season was a learning curve for me. I feel I’ve learnt when to take less touches on the ball, when to take more touches on the ball; things like that.

“We want to create more and score more goals as a team this season. I want to do that more this season personally; have more assists and input in games.

“All our centre mids want to start in the first game against Brentford but obviously only two or three can, so we’ll be looking to catch the gaffer’s eye.”

– Follow the above link for Stuart Watson’s thoughts on Town’s transfer options.