Football News

Norwich City’s Twitter thread of injury updates ahead of the Man City game is soul-destroying

By Chris Smith

Published: 14:42, 13 September 2019 | Updated: 12:43, 25 February 2020

Daniel Farke has revealed Norwich City could be without up to 10 of their first-team squad for the visit of defending champions Manchester City.

The Canaries host Pep Guardiola’s side on Saturday looking to pick up just their second win since returning to the English top flight.

How bad is Norwich’s injury crisis? Five things to know…

  • Norwich face defending champions Man City at Carrow Road on Saturday.
  • But Daniel Farke has named a worrying amount of absentees ahead of the match.
  • Timm Klose, Christoph Zimmermann, Tom Trybull, Moritz Leitner, Mario Vrancic and Max Aarons are all ruled out through injury.
  • Tim Krul, Ben Godfrey and Grant Hanley are also doubts, while loanee Patrick Roberts is ineligible to face his parent club.
  • 19th-place Norwich have conceded the highest number of goals (10) in the Premier League this season.

An already improbable task has been made that much more difficult with an injury crisis sweeping Carrow Road.

Norwich’s official Twitter account provided live updates of Farke’s press conference and, all in all, it made for an incredibly uncomfortable thread for fans.

Paraphrasing Farke, they wrote: “Timm Klose doesn’t need surgery. It won’t reduce his time out. He is out for 9 months but could be 1-2 months less.

“Zimmermann is out until January. His ligaments are okay but it’s a complicated injury.

“Grant Hanley is not available for the starting line-up tomorrow. He is back on the training pitch today and he could play 20/30 minutes tomorrow.

“Tom Trybull is out. He damaged his ligaments against West Ham. He won’t come back before the next international break.

“Patrick Roberts is ineligible. Moritz Leitner is out with his calf. He hasn’t trained for 2 weeks.

“Mario Vrancic is not available for tomorrow, he has a calf strain. Max Aarons is also out, he could be back after the next international break.

“Ben Godfrey came back with a groin strain from international and is a major doubt for tomorrow. It will be a short-term decision.

“Tim Krul is a minor doubt for tomorrow. I may have to name three goalkeepers in the squad.”

Revealing so many absentees on the eve of facing the Premier League champions was always going to be a lot to take in for Norwich fans, who have, understandably, provided plenty of reaction on the social media platform themselves.

‘Sane could make Man City return before end of year’

Things may be tough for Norwich right now, but Guardiola’s fitness update was rather more positive.

Despite revealing centre-back Aymeric Laporte will be out for up to six months with a knee injury, Guardiola was more hopeful of an early return for Leroy Sane.

The German was expected to have a lengthy layoff with knee ligament damage, but Guardiola believes he could be fit as early as December.

“He [Sane] is coming back before the end of the season,” he said. “He was injured in August so he should be perfect by December, January and February.

“The surgery was good and he’s back now with us making his rehabilitation. Hopefully, it will go well.”