Gareth Ainsworth has warned Anthony Stewart he may face a fight to get back in the Wanderers starting line-up after returning from injury.

Stewart has played just twice this season and has not featured for the Chairboys since injuring his knee in the 1-0 defeat at Craven Cottage in the Capital One Cup in August.

He made his return on the bench in Sunday’s 4-0 FA Cup win over Halifax Town but did not feature and Ainsworth made it clear he will need to impress to dislodge his current centre-back pairing.

“Anthony knows he is going to have to fight his way back into the first team because I felt Jason McCarthy and Aaron Pierre were outstanding today,” explained Ainsworth after the Halifax match.

“It was not an easy job today against non-league players who are really fighting for it. One slip can cause a big cup upset but they performed really well.”

Having started the campaign with a goal in the 3-0 victory over York the injury suffered by Stewart just three days later was supposed to keep him out until Christmas.

His return is therefore timely and comes just as McCarthy has agreed a new deal to extend his loan until January next year.

Ainsworth has been impressed with what he has seen from the youngster during his time with the club and will be pleased the Southampton graduate is set to stay with the Blues.

He said: “He has improved with every single game and it is just as you’d expect. You can’t expect a 19-year-old who’s never played before to be superb in his first game.

“He has taken two or three games to get to know the boys and get up to speed but I think over the last three games Jason has performed very well which has come as no surprise to me.”

Stewart, who at 23 is also in the category of apprentice rather than master of the art of defending, may get his first start since returning on Friday when Wycombe host Leeds in a friendly.

The limited number of fit players available to Ainsworth means he will have to play a near full strength squad on Friday night and he expects Stewart to feature heavily in proceedings.

“If all goes well Anthony will definitely play a big part on Friday and it is the perfect fixture for players like him who are coming back to fitness,” Ainsworth said.

“There are players who need a game and in training it is tough to recreate game situations and it will definitely open the door for a couple who haven’t played lately.

“When you have such a small squad and so many injuries you can’t rotate the players that much and it will be a first team that I play on Friday.”