Ipswich Town striker Paul Taylor departed Barnsley on the train, prior to Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Oakwell, to get an abscess under a tooth seen to.

So says Blues boss Mick McCarthy after the striker was pictured waiting for a train out of south Yorkshire just as away supporters were arriving for the match.

Taylor – who played in an Under-21 match at Playford Road last Tuesday while the majority of the Town squad were away enjoying a warm-weather break in Portugal – was replaced on the bench by new signing Paul Green.

The 26-year – a £1.5m signing by Paul Jewell on summer transfer deadline in 2012 – suffered a foot injury in only his third match for the club and missed the rest of his debut campaign at Portman Road as a result.

He was loaned out to former club Peterborough upon his return to fitness earlier this season, but underwhelmed in his six matches for the League One club.

The Liverpudlian has had just two starts and eight substitute appearances since then, with David McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy, Frank Nouble and the soon-to-be fit again Sylvan Ebanks-Blake ahead of him in the pecking order.

“He’s got toothache,” said McCarthy, when asked about Taylor’s departure from the ground, the interview-shy forward having travelled up with the squad the previous day before staying overnight in the team hotel.

“He had an abscess under his tooth and his head was bouncing. He was never going to play, he took antibiotics to settle it down, which it did a bit, but as soon as you start moving and the blood starts rushing around he wouldn’t have been any good to any of us so we sent him home. He needs to get that sorted out.”

Saturday’s comeback draw saw the seventh-place Blues – now unbeaten in four – close the gap on the play-off places to three points after Reading lost 2-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

Blackpool at home is next on the agenda, with the quartet of Brighton, Blackburn, Leeds and Wigan in a pack of six teams that increasingly look to be contesting the final top six spot as the leading five begin to pull away.

– Do you think Town will finish in the top six? Log on at 1pm on Monday for a live webchat.