Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy admits he’ll struggle to strengthen his thin squad before Thursday’s loan deadline.

The Blues boss has just 20 players with Football League experience to their name and is prepared to reduce that number further by allowing midfielder Anthony Wordsworth to go out on loan over the coming days.

Games will soon come thick and fast as the season reaches the traditionally busy Christmas period, but McCarthy – whose team sit 12th in the Championship table ahead of Saturday’s trip to Charlton – doesn’t expect to bring in anyone on a 93-day emergency loan.

Instead, he’ll stick with a tight-knit squad full of versatility for the seven matches leading up to the opening of the January transfer window.

“I’d like to bring in some loanees just to beef the squad up, but there’s a difficulty in doing that,” said the Blues boss.

“If you bring players in from the Premier League the first thing those clubs will say is ‘we want them to play’ because that’s why they send them out.

“If you look to bring players in that are disenchanted elsewhere, well they will obviously want to play.

“They’d have to be really good players to get in the team, so it’s not easy just getting loan players just to beef the squad up.”

Wordsworth made a good impression at Portman Road in the second half of last season following a January move from League One side Colchester United, but he’s been limited to just two substitute appearances so far this season and was made available for loan following the recent signing of Stephen Hunt on a ‘pay as you play’ deal.

“We had an offer from Preston and I thought he was going to go last week,” said McCarthy. “There was a number of reasons why he didn’t.

“Preston wanted him until January without a break clause, but that would have left me high and dry after the 14th of December, so I wasn’t prepared to do it. Is he still available? If it works and it suits, there is a possibility for it.”

Ipswich had 16 different loanees and one short-term signing (Nigel Reo-Coker) throughout the course of the 2012/13 season, but have so far brought in just one loanee (Ryan Tunnicliffe) and one short-term signing (Hunt) during this campaign.

In addition, youngsters Elliott Hewitt (Gillingham), Jack Marriott (Woking) and David October (Histon) have joined lower level clubs on a temporary basis to gain experience.