STEVE Cotterill admits he is being careful not to burn out Burnley teenager Chris McCann.

The 19-year-old midfielder has played a significant role in Burnley's rise up to fourth in the Championship table.

In his second full season at Turf Moor, the Irish teenager has made eight league starts and appeared off the bench on a further seven occasions.

As the Clarets make the long journey south to Ipswich, aiming to bolster their position near the top of the league, it was McCann who proved the match winner when the two sides last met almost a month ago.

Standing in as an emergency centre-back, McCann enjoyed a terrific game against the Tractor Boys at Turf Moor and emerged with a late header to earn Burnley three points.

He also opened the scoring against Birmingham last Saturday, arriving at the back post to convert Steve Foster's right wing cross.

While McCann looks to make more contributions to the Clarets cause this season, manager Cotterill insists efforts are being made not to heap too much pressure on the youngster.

"Chris has a good strike and he's a decent header of the ball," said Cotterill.

"We've just got to be careful with Chris. I think what happened last season and what happened early on is he wasn't quite on it and I pushed him, pushed him and pushed him before I took him out of the team.

"Sometimes you have to re-visit your thoughts on that and sometimes when there's players left out of the team, it is for reasons and you have to think long and hard.

"Sometimes you are better off, when you are picking the team, to have good strong competition.

"You can then leave players out when they haven't hit rock bottom with any confidence because when they step back in, they benefit from it.

"There's been a lot of thought lately into that, that we don't burn people and we try and keep it game by game.

"Quite often when you win a game, it is quite easy to roll into the next game with the same team.

"But you've got to bear in mind we are coming up to the 20-game mark now where some people have little ups and downs in the season.

"So we've had a long look and debate about that."