STRIKER Stuart Fleetwood fears his Exeter City career could be over now he has fallen out of favour at St James's Park.

The forward, who is on a season-long loan from Charlton Athletic, has only made three first-team starts since the beginning of December and has not even been in the squad for the last two matches against Bristol Rovers and Wycombe Wanderers.

Fleetwood has another year on his Addicks contract and says he would be open to a return to City on loan next season.

But his recent stint on the sidelines means the 23-year-old now has doubts over whether or not a third spell with Paul Tisdale's men would be in his best interests.

Fleetwood said: "I haven't been given a reason as to why I have been left out, Paul (Tisdale) just told me he only wanted two strikers on the bench and that I wasn't one of them.

"I have a year left at Charlton but I cannot see myself playing there so I would have thought I would be looking to go on loan again to try to earn a contract, whether that is here or somewhere else.

"Staying at Exeter would have been my first choice because I have moved down here, but I am not in the team at the moment so there are doubts in my mind now.

"I don't want to be at a club that I'm not playing for at all so we will have to see what happens in the last nine games."

Fleetwood first arrived at St James's Park at the end of last season on an emergency loan deal.

He immediately became a fans' favourite, scoring three goals in nine games as the Grecians finished runners-up in Coca-Cola League Two.

The pacy hitman returned to City last August with high hopes of establishing himself as a force in League One.

But a return of three goals in 16 starts has seen the Welshman fall down the pecking order, behind the likes of Adam Stansfield, Barry Corr and Saturday's goal hero Richard Logan.

However, Fleetwood has not given up on his bid to get back into Tisdale's plans and play a part in City's battle to survive the drop just yet.

Yesterday he hoped to catch the manager's eye by featuring in the reserves' game against Swindon Town in the Totesport.com Combination League Wales & West Division.

Fleetwood said: "I cannot really put my finger on it (being left out). I have trained well and scored goals for the reserves, so I'm not sure why it has happened to me.

"I have not been involved on match days, which is disappointing, but these are the games where I need to show what I can do. Then we will see what happens in the summer."