Daniel Farke was quick to shoot down any conspiracy theory Todd Cantwell's absence from Norwich City's 3-0 friendly defeat at Newcastle United was anything to do with his future, amid transfer links to Aston Villa.

Cantwell rolled his ankle on Friday but scans on Saturday morning were encouraging and the attacking midfielder still has a chance of being involved in next week's Premier League kick-off against Liverpool.

The Dereham ace has been the subject of intense speculation linking him with Aston Villa following the British record £100m sale of Jack Grealish, but Farke made it clear there is nothing to see.

"He rolled his ankle on Friday. I know during these times when a player of his calibre is out there is always speculation and that it has something to do with transfers. No, not at all," said the City chief. "The same with Max Aarons who was not involved for the King's Lynn game and people get over-excited.

"Todd has a strain in his ankle ligament. But we scanned it this morning and it is not too bad. We have to wait how it develops. We hope he is available for Liverpool. We had seven who missed out this game due to Covid cases. But the good news is the last 10 days we have had no new cases so from net week on we can involve them all in team training.

"This was a difficult day for us. We had 10 first team outfield players available. Even when we get the other lads back it won't be easy. Milot Rashica, for example, needed a proper pre-season but we had two friendlies cancelled and then he misses the last two because he is a positive case.

"Same for Grant Haney, our club captain, who has not played one minute of pre-season. So that is not ideal for the start of the season. Our pre-season has been interrupted and disturbed and I have mentioned already the first two or three weeks will be bumpy because we need to give these players time on the training pitch. But we don't complain."

Teemu Pukki only returned from his period of self-isolation on Friday to re-join the group. The Finn played the final 30 minutes on Tyneside. Farke also revealed Lukas Rupp will have an ankle issue assessed in the coming days after his second half exit. Kenny McLean has also suffered with back trouble in the past week after returning to the fold following a knee injury that ruled him out of Scotland's Euro2020 tilt.