CHRIS WISE Paul McVeigh will once again be on the sidelines when Norwich City take on Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Saturday.

CHRIS WISE

Paul McVeigh will once again be on the sidelines when Norwich City take on Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Saturday.

The Irishman is still feeling the back injury he sustained during the home win over Sheffield United on March 18 and while he is on the road to recovery he won't be fit to play at the weekend.

"Paul is making progress and may join in with the rest of the group later in the week but Saturday's game will come too soon for him," said manager Nigel Worthington.

"It's difficult to say when he will be ready to return. It's just a case of monitoring him day and day and seeing where he is at."

McVeigh will be missing for the fourth game in succession on Saturday and there's a chance he could be joined on the sidelines by Leon McKenzie, who limped off after just 11 minutes at Preston last weekend following a painful knock on the hip.

The City striker wasn't badly hurt at Deepdale, but he remained in some discomfort yesterday and a decision on his availability will be made later in the week.

"Leon is making steady progress but he hasn't trained since the injury and it's too early to say whether he will be fit for the weekend," said Worthington. "I should imagine that one will be a last-minute decision."

Youssef Safri is certain to miss the trip to Hillsborough, and three remaining matches after that, following a successful gall bladder operation on Monday afternoon.

"Everything went well - that is the main thing," said the City boss, who always knew he would be without the Moroccan midfielder for the rest of the season once the problem had been diagnosed.

"He now faces a spell of recuperation and hopefully he will be fit and ready to go when we return for pre-season training."

With a number of key men on the sidelines, and promotion no longer a possibility, Worthington may decide to include one or two youngsters in his starting line-up over the coming weeks. But he insists nothing should be read into the decision to withdraw 17-year-old defender Michael Spillane from Monday's reserve fixture against Ipswich with just 60 minutes on the clock.

That often happens when a player has been pencilled in for a game in the first team later in the week, but the City boss insisted the substitution had nothing to do with that.

"It was down to an injury," he explained. "Michael took a knock on the knee just before half-time and after giving him 15 minutes to run it off we decided to substitute him just to be on the safe side."