Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy says letting Michael Chopra leave for nothing this summer was ‘a no-brainer’.

The controversial striker faces his former club for the first time tomorrow, with the Blues facing Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.

Chopra has started just one league game for the Tangerines, with his six substitute appearances equating to little over an hour of combined football.

He is yet to score for his new employers, but did set up the late winner as Paul Ince’s side continued their good run of form with a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest last weekend.

Asked if he had any regrets about letting the 29-year-old go, McCarthy said: “No, not at all. I told everybody I was going to let him go at the end of the season. He knew that.

“When he came back I gave him the opportunity to get himself right, to play, but that really didn’t happen. So when Blackpool came in it was a no-brainer for me.

“It’s sod’s law, now I’ve said that, that he’ll get on the pitch and have a chance because they always do when I let somebody go!”

Chopra’s career has been on something of a downward slide for the last three years. The former Newcastle trainee earned big money moves to Sunderland and Cardiff in his early 20s, but he managed just 19 goals in two seasons, over-shadowed by off-field problems, in Suffolk.

Asked if his squad lacked an out-an-out goal poacher like Chopra, McCarthy quipped: “I lacked a player like that when he was here. Listen, Chops has been a real terrific player, but I don’t think he was ever that player here. Certainly from what I saw of him.

“If he had of been, if he’d been the Chops of six years ago when he was at Cardiff, he’d have been in my team.

“For whatever the reasons he wasn’t though. And to be fair he has gone to Blackpool and he’s still not playing.”