Norwich City will have to do without Todd Cantwell for Saturday’s match at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday and Jamal Lewis is a doubt with a hamstring issue too, Daniel Farke told the assembled media at Colney at his usual pre-match presser.
🗣 A lengthy team news bulletin delivered by The Boss this lunchtime. Read it here ⬇️https://t.co/TYDereskqx#ncfc pic.twitter.com/LDh52AlIuA
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) November 2, 2018
Cantwell is still struggling with his hamstring and Lewis has “felt his hamstring” so was rested from training yesterday. Farke is hopeful though, that he will be available.
This could leave City with an issue in terms of home-grown players. They need seven home-grown players in the matchday squad and if Lewis and Cantwell are unavailable then that will leave just four established home-grown first teamers in the form of Tim Krul, Ben Godfrey, Ben Marshall and Max Aarons. That could well mean that there’ll be some youngsters named in the squad.
Ivo Pinto took a knock against Bournemouth and is also unavailable but Marco Stiepermann will travel, having recovered from tonsillitis and he has been back in training. Jordan Rhodes, another “home-grown” player is not able to play against his parent club.
Grant Hanley and Aston Oxborough (Aston would’ve been an ideal home-grown option to put on the bench) are both still unavailable, along with Louis Thompson who underwent surgery on Wednesday morning for his dislocated shoulder. The operation went well but the recovery from it is expected to take three months, which is desperately unlucky for Louis.
In terms of Hanley, he’s back in training but Farke doesn’t expect him to be back in contention until after the next international break. He has resumed training though, which is good news.
Another player we’ve seen very little of is Kenny McLean, who is off his crutches now and doing some running sessions, again though, I doubt he’ll be back until after that next break.
Expect to see Teemu Pukki back in the squad although whether he starts is a decision for Farke, who talked up Dennis Srbeny’s contribution against Bournemouth.
All in all, this is clearly going to be a tough test against a side that started the season well but have now suffered three losses in a row. The chance to get back to winning ways against a top-six team though, won’t be lost on all those of an Owls’ persuasion.
OTBC