Ben Gibson was recruited as a central defender, and that is not going to change despite Norwich City’s depleted stocks at left back.

Xavi Quintilla is poised to miss out again on Saturday against Swansea City with a hip issue, and with understudy Sam McCallum on loan at Coventry City, Jacob Sorensen has been press-ganged into service in recent league games.

The left-sided Gibson played there earlier in his career but has forged a promising partnership alongside Grant Hanley. If Daniel Farke was weighing up a switch, with Christoph Zimmermann now available, a muscular issue for the Burnley loanee has shelved any short term plans for a re-deployment.

“Ben has played many games in his career on that left side. But in terms of movement and high speed running it would perhaps mean even more running, so with his current issue I don’t think it is an option,” said Farke.

“Maybe he could play there for a few minutes (in a game). Longer term he is an option, he can cover this position. Ben is a versatile player.”

Gibson and Sorensen are both fitness doubts while Todd Cantwell (ankle), Lukas Rupp (hamstring), Przemyslaw Placheta (calf) and Marco Stiepermann (neck) were also added to the same watch list on Friday by Farke, ahead of a final training session.

“We had so many problems in the last days with players not on the training pitch,” he said. “It will have to be a final call with many players (on Saturday). Todd had not been on the training pitch so we have to see if he is capable to train. The same with Lukas (hamstring) and Przemyslaw (calf). They had some muscle problems, which is why I had to substitute them the other night.

“I would say a minor question mark. More so Lukas that Przemyslaw.

“With Ben and Jacob neither had played for a while and now we have many games in a short period of time. I don’t want to cry too much. This is our seventh game in 21 days. It is a tricky situation.”