Ipswich Town manager Paul Lambert says Teddy Bishop can only be considered a ‘really good player’ once he’s proven his durability again.

The 24-year-old produced an impressive performance in the recent friendly defeat to West Ham (friendly) and followed it up with another eye-catching display of dribbling in Saturday’s comfortable 3-0 victory against Bristol Rovers in the EFL Cup.

It’s left supporters keeping everything crossed that the twinkle-towed midfielder can finally stay fit following several years of various injury set-backs.

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Since being a key man in the team which claimed a Championship play-off place back in 2014/15, the academy graduate has started just 25 league games across five seasons.

“My opinion is that Bish has to play games here, he can’t stop-start all the time the way it’s been for the last few years,” said Lambert, speaking ahead of tonight’s EFL Trophy group game against Arsenal.

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“The lad’s got to play, but when he plays like that and he stays injury free, he’s one hell of a player. But he’s got to play all the time.

“There’s no point in saying you’re a really good player if you’re not playing. Everybody’s a good player if they don’t play. He’s got to play and he’s got to do that every single week and turn it out and turn it out and have consistency.”