JOSH Carson needs to ‘rip up’ League Two if he is to salvage his faltering Ipswich Town career.

That’s the assessment of Blues boss Mick McCarthy after he allowed the 19-year-old midfielder to join a York City side fighting to retain their Football League status on a month-long loan.

Carson looked like he could be next big thing to emerge from Town’s academy when he burst onto the scene under the management of Roy Keane in the 2011/12 season, the teenager scoring three goals in his first five appearances.

International caps for Northern Ireland followed, but he soon slipped down the pecking order under Paul Jewell and has not featured for the first team at all under McCarthy.

“He’s not going to get in my first team – he’s not at that level just now,” said the Blues boss.

“I think he played in the last game before I came, against Sheffield Wednesday (3-0 home defeat), but a month away will do him some good. He needs some football.”

He added: “I’m not giving up on him. If he wants to play in my team, he needs to go up to York and rip it up. It needs to be a case of ‘Josh Carson is in for player of the month’. That’s what I’ll be looking for.

“Surely players don’t need encouragement from a manager to go away and do well on loan. If he wants to be here and be a player then he’ll know the only way that can happen is if he gets some competitive football.”

In August 2011, former Blues boss Jewell said that Carson had not returned to pre-season ‘in as good a shape as he possibly could have been’ and told the youngster to ‘knuckle down’.

He later said he was pleased with the way Carson was ‘maturing’ and handed him a new two-year deal last February.

The Ballymena-born player – who has linked back up with his former Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington at Bootham Crescent – made his York debut on Saturday, the Minstermen losing 2-0 at home to Port Vale to slide to within a point of the drop zone.

Carson is one of just 14 players who are contracted to be at Portman Road beyond the end of June.