POPULAR full-back Shane O’Connor has dropped his broadest hint yet that he sees his future away from the Blues.

The defender was this week forced to train and play with the Under-18s after he failed to make the cut for Paul Jewell’s 23-man squad to the Netherlands.

Having shot from nowhere to break into the first team under Roy Keane, O’Connor has not played for Town this year and he admitted he has no clue where his future lies next season.

While not wanting to leave Ipswich, and paying a warm tribute to the backing he has received from supporters, O’Connor needs to be playing football somewhere as he enters the last year of his contract.

The 21-year-old said: “I want to be playing for Ipswich and I will keep knocking on the door of the squad and the first team. I think I could do well in the Championship but different managers like different things and you have to respect that.

“I am not really sure what is going to happen. I am at an age where I want and need to be playing.”

The left-back, who hasn’t made a start for Ipswich since the snow-hit 3-0 win against Leicester City in December, has seemingly fallen down the pecking order behind Mark Kennedy and new signing Aaron Cresswell.

But there is a school of thought among some supporters that he should be given a chance in the troublesome left midfield position.

O’Connor and striker Ronan Murray seem to be the biggest casualties from the Dutch trip with both lining up for largely an Academy side against Haverhill Rovers on Wednesday night.

But the pair earned the praise of Under-18s’ boss Russell Osman who described their attitude in both training and the match as a “credit to themselves”.