OWEN Garvan is still believed to be interesting Colchester United after turning down a loan offer to join the League One club.

Elvin King

OWEN Garvan is still believed to be interesting Colchester United after turning down a loan offer to join the League One club.

The 21-year-old midfielder has made 151 Ipswich Town appearances, but has made just two starts this season when he was withdrawn at the interval both times.

He has not featured in Roy Keane's squad since the 2-0 defeat at West Brom on August 22, and was believed to be the player the Town manager had in mind when he said two days later that one or two were highly unlikely to play for him again.

Keane revealed last week that current Republic of Ireland Under-21 captain Garvan had turned down a loan move indicating that it would be an opportunity to play games.

A move to Colchester would on the face of it appeal to Garvan as he could stay living in Ipswich and be involved in a team that is proving a success under new manager Aidy Boothroyd.

His confidence may be a bit low at the moment, and a change of scene would give him the opportunity to re-build this, and also play his way back into form.

Garvan has decided to put his head down and concentrate on winning a place back in Keane's first team, and he did well enough in front of the manager in Wednesday's reserve game against Northampton.

Keane confirmed that he hasn't written Garvan off and that he could include him in the squad for tomorrow's visit to Barnsley (kick-off 3pm).

Huddersfield, who signed Jordan Rhodes from Ipswich in the summer, are a second club who have shown an interest in taking Garvan on loan.

Another player out in the cold as far as Keane is concerned is former Welsh international left back Ben Thatcher.

Keane has said that the 33-year-old, who has eight months left on his contract, is not in his plans.

Thatcher is still training at the club's Playford Road training ground, but has yet to be selected for a single competitive game - first team or reserves - this season.

Keane is unlikely to make significant changes tomorrow with Alex Bruce still out with a groin problem. He may be tempted to give keeper Richard Wright a rest, but his deputy Arran Lee-Barrett is short of match practice with young Ian McLoughlin between the sticks for the last two reserve games.

Jon Walters is set to lead the side again despite suffering from a chest cold, and he showed encouraging signs of forging a potent partnership with Tamas Priskin up front.

Jon Stead scored twice in a Town win at Oakwell last season.

Jamie Peters did well enough at left back and Tommy Smith was comfortable beside Gareth McAuley in the heart of the defence on Tuesday.