Tyrone Mings may be attracting some of the Premier League’s leading clubs, but he’s not going to just walk back into the Ipswich Town side.

The Blues turned down an offer of around £3.5m, from Crystal Palace, for the 21-year-old left-back on August transfer deadline day. A string of impressive performances since then has seen his value rocket, with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton all closely monitoring his progress ahead of today’s opening of the January transfer window.

Mings missed the festive wins against fellow high-fliers Middlesbrough and Brentford with an infected toe though and, as a result, had to make do with a place on the bench as Town beat Charlton 3-0 on Tuesday night to maintain their grip on second spot in the Championship table.

With Jonathan Parr having performed well in Mings’ absence, McCarthy said: “Tyrone was fit, but he’s only had three days training in 17 and that’s not really good preparation for a game like we had.

“I have always wondered whether Ty was ready to play 46 games this season anyway. He’s still an outstanding left-back, and I’ve no doubt he’ll get back in the team at some stage, but it’s a team game and they’ve all got to play their part.”

Centre-back Tommy Smith was a regular who dropped out of the team for a spell earlier in the campaign, sitting out seven of eight matches, but has come back with a bang of late, defending well and scoring four goals in his last 11 outings.

“As a manager I can’t ask anything more than that from a player,” said McCarthy. “He was quite clearly upset and annoyed at being left out – and that’s okay. It’s how you deal with it. You train properly and when you get your chance you’ve got to be ready to go. If you don’t train properly then you end up playing like a chump when your chance comes.

“I know Tommy scored with his foot on Tuesday night, but he’s one of the best headers of the ball, technique-wise, that I’ve seen. He’s outstanding.”