Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy says he can’t wait to see what new signing Danny Rowe can do once he’s fully fit.

The 24-year-old winger was a £100k signing from National League side Macclesfield Town towards the end of the January transfer window and produced an eye-catching first-half display for the Under-23s in Monday night’s 8-0 thrashing of Watford at Portman Road.

“Danny was very good on Monday night,” enthused McCarthy. “It was a great ball for the first goal, he got a few crosses in and put a shift in. I’m looking forward to seeing him fully fit because he’s just been carrying a bit of a groin injury which is niggling a little bit.

“He’s come from training two days a week, but he doesn’t look like that because he’s a real powerhouse. He’s obviously trained hard himself.

“With the intensity of training and games being higher than he’s used to we don’t want to risk him getting injured straight away.”

New loan striker Dominic Samuel scored a second-half hat-trick in that U23 match. He could make his debut at Aston Villa on Saturday having been ineligible to face his parent club Reading last weekend.

“Dominic is a finisher, there is no doubt about that,” said McCarthy. “He hits it hard, with the side-foot, and hits the target. He doesn’t waste too many opportunities to work the keeper. When he gets in, and he’s got pace, he looks like he’s going to score.

“He fed off Kieffer Moore’s physical presence on Monday night. The pair of them did well.”

He added: “I think I’ve got a little bit of carte blanche to do what I want with the team at the moment because we’ve hardly been ripping it up. Look at how many goals we’ve scored from midfield with Doz (Andre Dozzell), (Teddy) Bishop, (Kevin) Bru and Dougie (Jonathan Douglas).

“I’ve got more players now and more options. “I’m going to have to leave people out now, but they are going to have to put up with that I’m afraid.”