David Cuffley Midfielder Sammy Clingan is rated 50-50 for Norwich City's Championship match at Preston tomorrow.Clingan was unable to play in Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifier in San Marino on Wednesday because of a thigh injury.

David Cuffley

Midfielder Sammy Clingan is rated 50-50 for Norwich City's Championship match at Preston tomorrow.

Clingan was unable to play in Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifier in San Marino on Wednesday because of a thigh injury.

The 25-year-old teamed up with Nigel Worthington's squad but has returned to Norwich in time to travel for the game at Deepdale (3pm) if he is fit enough.

“Sammy is probably rated 50-50 at the moment because he's come back from the Northern Ireland squad after receiving treatment as well,” said manager Bryan Gunn.

“He got this bang against Wolves and then played against Bristol City so it just shows you he's committed and he wants to play, but we've also got to be aware that if we do play him and he gets it worse, we'll be without one of our top players for a number of games, so that's a decision we'll make when he have to make it.”

Clingan said earlier in the week that the Canaries had turned down a bid from Fulham for him during the January transfer window, but Gunn said today there had been no formal approach.

He said: “There were no offers club to club. You can read into that what you want. There was mention of an offer but it wasn't from club to club. We'd only deal with Fulham, obviously.”

On-loan David Carney is also back from his international stint with Australia in Japan, when he made a brief appearance as a late substitute in the World Cup qualifier in Yokohama.

“David Carney is back in the country and will meet us at the hotel,” said Gunn. “He'll be resting today and doing a bit of fitness work. I don't think he exerted too much energy in three minutes.

“The international manager, Pim Verbeek, has said he's playing people who are playing for their teams at the moment. Unfortunately David hasn't. Apart from 45 minutes at Wolves, he hasn't played a lot of football this season.”

Ryan Bertrand is out of tomorrow's game with an ankle ligament injury and faces a race to be fit for next week's visit of Burnley.

Striker Cody McDonald, signed from non-League Dartford last week, is also unavailable for senior action because of injury.

“He got a bang in the game I saw against Maidstone. He's got a dead leg above his knee,” said Gunn.

“We want to make sure he's right before we put him into the rigours of full-time training. He's back jogging now. He'll probably be training with us next week.”