Norwich City goalkeeper Tim Krul has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time this year.

Krul announced that his positive result on social media saying "Merry Christmas.. I have tested positive for Covid again."

He added: "Hopefully 2022 will bring better times for everyone.

"Stay safe and healthy. Love from the Krul family."

Krul also tested positive for coronavirus at the beginning of the year as Norwich City confirmed two other cases after a round of testing for the first team squad and support staff.

During his Christmas Eve press conference Norwich City manager Dean Smith said: "We’ve had some fresh (Covid) cases but we’ve got some others coming back from previous cases as well, so pretty similar to a lot of other clubs at the moment.

“We have to have a PCR test within 48 hours of a game and that’s our last point to find out who is going to be missing and who’s going to be available.

“So we’ll train today and tomorrow morning and see what we’ve got.”

During his media briefing, Smith was clear on the huge pressures of the festive season.

“We all know that there is a tradition with the festive scheduling, it’s difficult normally but it’s nigh on impossible at the moment to ask players to play twice in 48 hours.

“At the moment, I don’t know how we’re going to do it. We’ve got a lot of players coming back, some from Covid cases, some from injuries. We’re having to push injuries forward and people are breaking down in rehab because of that.

“It’s asking massive things of everybody’s squads at the moment. It’s lunacy that we’re having to play two games in 48 hours and there’s got to be a question about the integrity of the competition when teams are playing weakened teams against other teams and it’s affecting league positions.”

The Canaries had last weekend’s trip to West Ham postponed after an abject performance in a 2-0 home defeat to Aston Vila, which Smith has taken responsibility for and said it should not have gone ahead.

“We had it the other day against Aston Villa and I blame myself really, for not pushing to get the game called off, because we shouldn’t have played,” he added.

“I suppose because we were so buoyant after the performance against Manchester United a few days earlier but then I had four players pull out on the day of the game and three players on the bench who I couldn’t put on.

“I ended up making the substitution of a guy (Sam Byram) who hadn’t played for 22 months, after 43 minutes. He wasn’t due to be making a first-team start until the FA Cup game on January 9, but that’s where we were.

“I was bordering on negligent from myself and if he had have got injured, I would have felt very, very guilty. Thankfully Sam got through the game but I think we are in a dangerous position now where we’re risking the health and welfare of the players.