David Cuffley Norwich City manager Glenn Roeder has ruled out a move for Newcastle defender David Edgar.The 21-year-old Canadian centre-back was reported to be keen to link up with former boss Roeder in the search for first team football.

David Cuffley

Norwich City manager Glenn Roeder has ruled out a move for Newcastle defender David Edgar.

The 21-year-old Canadian centre-back was reported to be keen to link up with former boss Roeder in the search for first team football.

Edgar has played five senior games for the Magpies this season, but has not appeared since the home defeat by Blackburn in September.

Said Roeder: "Anyone who becomes available at Newcastle I'd probably be linked with - unless it's Michael Owen. I don't think we'd be linked with him. But he's not in my mind at the moment."

City are short of central defensive cover after Dejan Stefanovic was ruled out for the rest of the season by knee ligament damage, while John Kennedy's loan from Celtic runs out in January.

Asked whether there was the possibility of bringing in another loan defender - Middlesbrough's Jonathan Grounds has already had one spell at Carrow Road this season - Roeder suggested City must watch the pennies.

"It's possible - not definite. The world of football is not flush at the moment and it's not just us," he said. "There is one team in the Championship last week who loaned a player to another club even though he was currently playing for them.

"You don't loan players to other clubs when they're playing week in, week out for you, but the finances of that particular club are such that they loaned a first team player to another Championship club.

"There is no point beating about the bush. Those are the facts. I'm sure if we had to find one, we could and we could do something about it but we've got to be careful at the moment."

Meanwhile, Austrian striker Roman Kienast's trial with City has been cut short by a hamstring injury.

Kienast, 24, currently on loan to Swedish side Helsingborgs IF from Ham-Kam in Norway, made only a brief appearance in City Reserves' 4-2 friendly win over Arsenal on Tuesday night.

"Unfortunately, he's picked up a hamstring injury that is an old injury he had only just recovered from," said Roeder.

"He came on a recommendation - I didn't know a lot about him - but having pulled his hamstring in the manner he did, he's not going to be fit for four to six weeks, so we have had to drop the reins on that one.

"He would have been here a few more days. It's so important when you have a triallist that you can play him in a match. Training tells you so much, but matches tell you a lot more."

Kienast, a member of Austria's Euro 2008 team and capped nine times, told Norwegian newspaper Hamar Arbeiderblad: "I pulled it and couldn't play any more. This sums up my 2008 footballing year. I'm going home to Vienna for treatment and I'm aiming to be back at 100 per cent in January."