Cardiff City manager Mick McCarthy has suggested that Bluebirds are unlikely to see the likes of Harry Wilson, Sheyi Ojo and Jordi Osei-Tutu return to the club next term after their loan spells.

The Bluebirds saw any real hope of a late push for the play-offs extinguished after they failed to hold onto a 2-1 lead against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday and ended up having to settle for just a point. McCarthy’s side have now managed to take just one point from their last three matches and that has seen them drop back to nine points adrift of the top six with just five games to play.

Things had got off to such an excellent start for McCarthy at Cardiff with the Bluebirds managing to briefly climb into the top-six after taking 20 points from his first eight games in charge. However, since then wins have been much harder to come by and they have now managed to claim just one win in their last seven.

Both Wilson and Ojo have been heavily involved during their respective loan spells from Liverpool. Wilson has registered four goals and 11 assists in his 33 Championship appearances and Ojo managing five goals and seven assists in his 38 league games. While Osei-Tutu has had less of an impact with injuries limiting him to six appearances in the league.

Speaking to Wales Online, McCarthy revealed that the Bluebirds are not expecting to see any of their three current loanees return to the club for next term. While he also suggested his mind is now turning to who will be leaving and who will be coming in in the summer.

He said: "I've been here nearly two months so you're always evaluating it and calculating what you need, what's not going to be here," he said.

"We've got players on loan who are very unlikely they'll be coming back and we will be losing a bit of quality there.

"The next five games, we want to win them and get points, but we will have an eye on what's been happening next season."

The verdict

It is perhaps unsurprising that Cardiff will not be seeing any of their loan trio return to the club for next season, with Wilson potentially set to have potential interest from the Premier League once again in the summer if last summer’s transfer window is anything to go by. While the likes of Ojo and Osei-Tutu might have other potential destinations ahead for them.

Neither Ojo or Osei-Tutu were in the starting line-up against Blackburn and the pair look set to end their loan spells as bench players rather than being important members of the starting line-up. While if McCarthy knows they will not be returning he might opt to give others minutes off the bench instead of them to assess the players he will have at his disposal next campaign.

While Wilson is still in the side mainly, he was left out for the defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, and with games running out now and the play-offs having disappeared out of view for Cardiff McCarthy might want to give minutes to others. The Wales international has been a good performer for the Bluebirds, if perhaps not quite as good as some would have hoped when he arrived.