import re


def check_numeric(token):
    """
    Replace numeric parts in a token  using character level check and merge

    :param token: token to be checked for numerical
    :return: input token after replacing numeric parts with a wildcard
    """
    return_token = ""
    for i in range(0, len(token)):
        if not token[i].isnumeric():
            return_token += token[i]
        else:
            return_token += '<*>'
    wildcard_check = re.compile('(?:\<\*\>)+')
    return re.sub(wildcard_check, '<*>', return_token)