Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy has challenged Anthony Wordsworth to work his way back into the first team fold.

The 24-year-old creative midfield impressed upon his arrival from Colchester United in January, but has gone going from brief cameo appearances, to unused sub to not on the bench at all in recent weeks.

Last week he wasn’t even able to keep up his match fitness in an Under-21 fixture either, with McCarthy opting to name the fringe trio of Carlos Edwards, Jay Tabb and Frank Nouble as the three over-age players.

“He’s not out of favour for any reason,” said McCarthy. “I just put another striker on the bench (Jack Marriott) so somebody had to sit out of it.

“And I can only play three over-age players in the Under-21s. He (Wordsworth) played in the Under-21 game the week before (a 3-0 defeat at Millwall) and last week (a 1-1 home draw with Barnsley) I went with Carlos, Tabby and Frank because they are the next in line to play in their respective positions.

“Woody isn’t really because I’ve got Tunners (Ryan Tunnicliffe) and Tabby.

“He’s got to make himself that hasn’t he? He’s had a couple of double sessions and worked hard this week. He’s certainly not out of my plans, or anything like that.”

Wordsworth – who has started just one game for the Blues, the home game against Blackpool last season in which he cracked his vertebrae – did travel with the squad for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bolton, along with team mates Frederic Veseli and Jordan Adekunle.

The aforementioned trio were left out of the 18-man squad for the day though, with Elliott Hewitt, Tyrone Mings, Tabb, Edwards, Nouble and Marriott the seven on the bench at present.

During yesterday’s live Ipswich Town webchat on the EADT and Ipswich Star site, a 30% majority voted for Wordsworth when asked which fringe player they’d most like to see more of.