Mario Vrancic has been ruled out Norwich City’s Championship trip to Middlesbrough on Tuesday - with Marco Stiepermann and Wes Hoolahan rated major doubts.
Daniel Farke revealed at Colney on Monday lunchtime both Stiepermann and Hoolahan will only travel if they are able to train later this afternoon ahead of flying up to Teesside.
Hoolahan has had a scan on the knee injury he suffered in the second half of Saturday’s 0-0 league draw against Bristol City after replacing Vrancic, who went off with a calf problem.
“Mario will be unavailable – he’s had to have treatment since Saturday,” said Farke. “He had a knock on his calf during the game and he can’t run at the moment. There’s a chance for Saturday and hopefully he can return for then because he had a brilliant game at Brentford and he can always create something.
“There is a bit of hope with Stiepermann, who had some problems with his groin. He’s had some treatment, and he’ll travel with us but there’s only a small chance we’ll be able to use him. That’s a shame as he’s been brilliant in the last few games. There’s also hope for Wes. He had a scan and nothing is broken, but there is a swelling in the knee. It’s painful but we’re hopeful he’ll be able to train this afternoon (Monday) and then we’ll make the decision – but he’ll be another one who won’t be 100pc.”
Steven Naismith is still out with a groin injury and Russell Martin is on development duty at Reading on Monday afternoon. There was one sliver of good injury news with Nelson Oliveira poised to be in the travelling party if he suffers no adverse reaction to training on Monday afternoon.
“It looks good for Nelson but he’s not trained with us much, but we’ll see if he can train this afternoon and if he’s ok he’ll be able to travel with us,” said Farke. “He won’t be 100pc, but it would be a good feeling if we could have him on the bench and have the option to bring him on.”
Alex Pritchard, Jamal Lewis, Louis Thompson and Matt Jarvis remain longer term injury absentees.
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