What was Farke’s first thought after Godfrey injury scare?

Daniel Farke admitted he had to get over his shock at Ben Godfrey’s injury exit to plot a route to Norwich City’s Premier League point at Bournemouth.

Godfrey underwent a hernia operation over the international break after playing through the pain barrier with Grant Hanley, Timm Klose and Christoph Zimmermann all sidelined.

The England Under-21 captain had one full training session before resuming his partnership with holding midfielder Ibrahim Amadou, as the club's only fit and available recognised senior central defender.

But Godfrey pulled up again in distress just minutes into the second half of the 0-0 draw against the Cherries. Farke had to re-deploy Alex Tettey and introduce another of the longer term absentees, Tom Trybull, for an emergency shift.

"If I am honest I was shocked right in this moment," said Farke. "I was thinking, 'It can't happen again,' but I have spoken about this before.

"In life, like in football when you think you reach a turning point and you can start to climb up the hill then there is another sucker punch. After the shock you have to be switched on, because I have to make the right decision about who must come on and give the team the right solution.

"I can't start crying or give up. You have to show steel as a head coach as well as the players and find a precise solution. All credit to the players. You can have an idea to bring in Tom and move Alex back, who was outstanding in midfield, but it is up to the players to fulfil the wish. So all compliments to them."

Farke was hopeful the 21-year-old will be in his plans for Manchester United's upcoming visit and Godfrey has already taken to social media since the game to reassure former team mate Matt Jarvis and City fans he had suffered no longer term issue from a precautionary early exit at the Vitality Stadium.

Farke made another big call before the squad even left Norfolk on Friday, leaving behind Manchester City loanee Patrick Roberts, who featured in a goalscoring cameo at development level later that evening.

"It was harsh on him. My feeling is he has been improving in recent weeks and was close to a start," said the Canaries' head coach. "We decided to go with Emi (Buendia) and Todd (Cantwell) on the wings and then have one winger option, and Onel (Hernandez) had looked unbelievably sharp in training.

"If I am honest I had so many offensive options with Dennis Srbeny, Marco Stiepermann and Josip Drmic, who scored in the last game. We needed Tom and Sam Byram so we couldn't just come with wingers and strikers.

"It is harsh on Patrick and he didn't deserve it but in this moment we had to take a decision for the team to be solid but I hope Patrick has a big role to play for us in the future."